Where control genuinely sits across your chain, how far you can see, and what to put in place at every weak link.
A supply chain food safety review examines control across the whole chain, from raw material origin through processing and storage to customer delivery. It maps who handles product at each stage, identifies where control depends on someone you have no direct relationship with, assesses vulnerability to adulteration, and produces a control plan for each weak link. Most supplier control stops at the business that invoices you, and the risk does not.
The distinction that matters is between control you hold and control you assume. A specification held for a material bought through a broker describes a product whose manufacturer you cannot name. A cold chain is intact because product feels cold on arrival. In both cases the file looks complete and nobody is controlling anything.
The whole chain mapped, visibility measured per material, vulnerability scored, and a control plan sequenced by risk. Delivered remotely, in any language, quoted on scope.
Most supplier control stops at the first row. The risk continues down the table.
| Layer | Who they are | What is assessed | Typical position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier one | The businesses that invoice you directly. | Approval files, specifications, certification, performance data. | Usually controlled, and frequently the only tier anyone looks at. |
| Tier two | Your suppliers' suppliers. | Whether your supplier approves and monitors its own supply base competently. | Assessed indirectly through your supplier's own approval system. |
| Beyond tier two | Origin, growers, primary processors and consolidators. | Category level risk, known issues in that commodity, and evidence of provenance. | Visibility is low, so risk is managed by material and by evidence at intake. |
| Brokers and agents | Intermediaries who never handle the material. | Whether the actual manufacturer is known and approvable at all. | The single largest source of lost visibility in any chain. |
| Logistics and storage | Hauliers, third party warehouses, consolidators and port storage. | Temperature control, segregation, hygiene, security and traceability handover. | Frequently outside the approval system entirely. |
| Outsourced processing | Co packers and contract processors making your product. | Full supplier rigour, since they are manufacturing on your behalf. | Warrants more scrutiny than most material suppliers receive. |
Eight factors, scored per material. Food safety assumes failures are accidental, and fraud assumes someone is actively avoiding detection, which changes what controls work.
Price volatility, scarcity, or a large price gap between grades of the same material.
Whether a cheaper material can pass as yours without obvious detection.
Whether routine testing would identify substitution, dilution or misrepresentation.
Number of intermediaries between origin and you, and how many change custody.
Known incidents involving that commodity, in any market, at any point.
Whether provenance can be evidenced or is asserted by the party selling it.
Length of relationship, direct contact with the manufacturer, and site knowledge.
Whether anything you currently do would detect a problem before product ships.
Eight weak links found in most chains, all of them outside the tier one control that businesses concentrate on.
Material bought through an intermediary who will not disclose the producer. You cannot approve a manufacturer you cannot name, and the specification you hold describes a product with no verified origin.
Warehousing treated as logistics instead of as part of the food chain. Temperature control, segregation and traceability handover all sit with a business nobody approved.
Chilled and frozen movements arriving with no record of what happened in between. The cold chain is assumed intact because the product feels cold on arrival.
Several intermediaries between the grower and you, none of whom adds processing. Each step reduces visibility and adds an opportunity for substitution.
Material combined from several sources before it reaches you, arriving as one lot with one specification and several actual origins.
A business manufacturing your product under your brand, approved with less rigour than a supplier of packaging.
Testing programmes checking parameters unrelated to the plausible failure. A specification test that a substituted material would pass is not verification.
Commercial terms covering price, volume and delivery, with no right to audit, no notification obligation on change, and no requirement to disclose subcontracting.
The control plan is sequenced by risk, so the work is deliverable in the order it matters.
| Element | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Chain map | Every stage from origin to customer delivery, with who controls what at each. |
| Visibility assessment | How far up the chain you can see, per material. |
| Control point identification | Where food safety control genuinely sits, as opposed to where it is assumed to sit. |
| Vulnerability assessment | Susceptibility to adulteration, scored by material against defined factors. |
| Weak link register | Each gap, with the consequence if it fails and who would be exposed. |
| Verification review | Whether current testing and checks would detect the failures that are plausible. |
| Control plan | What to put in place at each weak link, sequenced by risk. |
| Contract recommendations | The food safety terms missing from your supply agreements. |
Manufacturers, brand owners, importers and businesses using outsourced processing. It suits operations with sound tier one control and no visibility beyond it, and any business buying commodities with a history of adulteration.
You buy material through brokers and cannot name the manufacturer.
Your standard requires a vulnerability assessment and you have none.
Product passes through third party storage nobody has approved.
You use co packers and they receive less scrutiny than material suppliers.
A commodity you buy has a history of adulteration.
Your chain crosses several countries and several custody transfers.
Testing is carried out and nobody has checked it would detect anything.
Supply contracts are silent on audit rights and change notification.
Every stage from origin to customer delivery is documented, including brokers, hauliers, storage and consolidation points.
How far up the chain you can see is established per material, along with where visibility stops.
Where food safety control genuinely sits is identified, as opposed to where the paperwork assumes it sits.
Each material is scored for susceptibility to deliberate adulteration against the eight factors.
Current testing and checks are assessed against the failures that are plausible, since testing the wrong parameter protects nothing.
Actions are set out for each weak link, sequenced by risk, including the contract terms that are missing.
Auditing the businesses in your chain, and laboratory testing. Both are separate, and the review identifies where each is warranted.
Legal drafting. Contract recommendations set out the food safety terms that are missing, and drafting them into agreements is for your lawyer.
Renegotiating with suppliers or brokers. Where a broker will not name a manufacturer, that is a commercial decision the review makes visible.
Every review is quoted against its own scope. A short domestic chain with four materials and a multi country chain with brokers and consolidation are very different pieces of work. These factors set the price.
These are the primary sources this work is built on. Where a market you sell into has its own requirement, that takes precedence and we assess against it.
It examines control across the whole chain, from raw material origin through processing and storage to customer delivery. It maps who handles product at each stage, identifies where control depends on a business you have no direct relationship with, assesses vulnerability to adulteration, and produces a control plan for each weak link.
Food law generally sets one step back as the minimum, and risk rarely stops there. How far you should look depends on the material. A commodity with a history of adulteration and a long chain warrants visibility beyond tier one. A simple material from a certified manufacturer usually does not.
You cannot approve a manufacturer you cannot name. A broker who will not disclose the producer leaves you holding a specification for a product with no verified origin, and no route to audit, notify or verify anything. It is the single largest source of lost visibility in most chains.
Yes, and it is regularly treated as logistics instead. Temperature control, segregation, hygiene, security and the traceability handover all sit with that business while the product is theirs. It belongs inside the approval system.
It assesses susceptibility to deliberate adulteration, which is a different question from accidental hazards. It considers economic incentive, ease of substitution, how hard detection would be, chain complexity, historical incidents, origin transparency and whether current verification would catch anything.
Food safety assumes failures are accidental. Fraud assumes someone is actively trying to avoid detection, which changes what controls work. A specification test that a substituted material would pass provides no protection, however diligently it is carried out.
They warrant more scrutiny than most material suppliers, since they are manufacturing your product under your brand. Treating outsourced processing as a service instead of a supply is a common and serious gap.
At minimum a right to audit, an obligation to notify you of any change to formulation, process, site or ownership, a requirement to disclose subcontracting, specification compliance, and an obligation to notify incidents affecting material supplied to you. Contracts silent on these leave access depending on goodwill.
Yes, and cross border chains are where the review earns most. Custody transfers, consolidation points and port storage all sit between businesses, and those boundaries are where visibility and traceability are usually lost.
An approval system review examines the process you use to control tier one. This review covers the whole chain including the tiers beyond it, logistics, storage, outsourced processing and vulnerability to adulteration. Businesses with sound tier one control and no visibility beyond it should take this one.
No. Testing that would not detect the plausible failure adds cost and no protection. The review assesses whether your current verification would catch anything, and recommends changes where it would not.
A chain map from origin to delivery, a visibility assessment per material, control point identification, a vulnerability assessment scored against defined factors, a weak link register with consequences, a verification review, a sequenced control plan and the food safety terms missing from your supply agreements.
Confi Food assigns work by subject. HACCP, labelling, certification standards, regulatory compliance, supplier assurance and monitoring are separate disciplines, and each piece goes to someone who works in that area. Every deliverable is reviewed internally by a second specialist before it reaches you.
Our technical positions are built from primary sources, meaning the legislation, the competent authority, Codex Alimentarius, the certification scheme owner or the relevant standards body. We set out how that works in our technical review and editorial policy, and what happens at each stage of an engagement in how Confi Food works.
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