Comprehensive Food Safety’s audits and inspections include one-on-one training of its clients’ foodservice handlers, department heads and staff, Cherkasky said. Changing a company’s food safety culture from top to bottom is one of Comprehensive Food Safety’s specialties, he said. The company offers its clients full-time consultant-auditors, industry leadership in both food safety and IPM, affordable turnkey solutions for retailers, a flexible, proprietary cloud-based platform and many other services. One emerging trend in the industry, Cherkasky said, is risk-based retail food safety audits with a focus on perishables. One problem is the fact that integrated pest management is often outsourced to the pest control operator, often with little or no responsibility by the retail organization. “There is a noticeable lack of attention to OSHA safety and integrated pest management during routine food safety audits,” he said. “Employee health and safety must never be comprised.” The retail grocery industry is entering a new era that’s focused on advancing technology, and real-time reporting and information sharing, Cherkasky said. “Flexible, cloud-based reporting platforms are being used more and more throughout the retail industry to mitigate , drive compliance, and to improve quality. The days of manual reporting systems are gone forever.” Cloud-based reporting platforms provide laser-focused insight and corresponding action, he added. And the ability to have users in each store is essential to ensure timely corrective actions that address root causes. Most important, he said, the platform should be easily customizable to meet the unique and constantly-changing retail reporting requirements across the industry. “This is essential to comply with all regulatory requirements, to accelerate culture shift and to ensure sustained results.” – Source: Food Safety Monitor/Food Business News.