Effectiveness of the internal audit of food safety management systems within the company

Abstract

The relevance of the topic is supported by recent trends indicating a significant increase in the number of food-related incidents worldwide, many of which have serious consequences for public health and negatively impact the reputation of the involved companies. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 600 million people fall ill annually due to diseases caused by the consumption of contaminated food, underscoring the urgent need for rigorous implementation and monitoring of food safety systems. The theoretical importance of the topic lies in the need for the continuous development and refinement of the conceptual and methodological framework of internal auditing applied to food safety management systems. Simultaneously, the practical significance arises from the necessity to identify and utilize relevant indicators and criteria to measure audit effectiveness, enabling organizations to translate audit results into concrete actions for performance improvement and risk reduction. The main objective of the thesis is to analyze and evaluate the effectiveness of internal auditing of the Food Safety Management System within an agri-food sector company, aiming to identify ways to optimize it for ensuring compliance, preventing food safety risks, and supporting continuous improvement. The methodological and theoretical support of the research was based on scientific contributions from internationally renowned authors in the field of management system auditing, the review of specialized literature, international standards (ISO 22000:2018, ISO 19011:2018), and applicable guidelines and regulations in the food safety domain. These works provided a solid theoretical framework for analyzing and interpreting the investigated phenomena, contributing to the substantiation of the conclusions and recommendations formulated in the study. The theoretical and methodological foundation of the thesis also relied on the research of domestic and foreign scholars, resources from the global information system, scientific and specialized periodical literature, and the author’s personal observations gained during audit missions conducted in over 65 companies.