Real-Time Food Safety Assurance
365 Days of Trust — From Periodic Compliance to Continuous Learning
Samenvatting
MODERN FOOD SAFETY DOES NOT NEED MORE AUDITS.
IT NEEDS BETTER SYSTEM INTELLIGENCE.
This book reveals why certification-driven assurance struggles to keep
pace with today’s food systems — and how real-time learning, structured
knowledge, and intelligent infrastructure restore control. Moving
beyond compliance without abandoning it, the author offers a system-
level perspective on resilience, assurance, and governance.
For food safety professionals, regulators, and leaders who sense that
the system must evolve — not because it is broken, but because the
world has changed.
Cornelis van Elst is a seasoned expert in food
safety, automation, and compliance with 25+
years of experience in the field. He combines
deep technical knowledge with practical insight
into how food companies manage safety and
quality in complex, regulated environments.
Specificaties
Inhoudsopgave
About the Author — Ir. Cornelis van Elst 11
Executive Summary 13
Who This Book Is For 17
Overview of the Book 19
Part I How CertIfICatIon BeCame tHe CeIlIng
1. Chasing the Highest Certificate Keeps Companies in Phase 1 27
2. Certification Keeps Companies Stuck in Phase 1 (Because the System Does) 31
3. The Big TIC Phase-1 Trap 35
4. Why Passing Audits Does Not Mean an Organization Is in Control 38
5. Phase 1 Is Necessary — Remaining There Is the Risk 41
Part II food Safety aS a learnIng SyStem
6. Food Safety as a Knowledge-Intensive Function 47
7. Food Safety as a Learning Organization 50
8. Managing the Five Food Safety Knowledge Domains 53
9. Why Knowledge — Not Documentation — Determines Maturity 56
10. From Individual Expertise to Organizational Intelligence 58
11. The Question Every Leadership Team Should Ask 60
Part III Beyond PdCa: SenSe & reSPond
12. PDCA Was Designed for a Slower World 65
13. From PDCA to Sense & Respond 68
14. Why PDCA Costs Become Distorted in the Big TIC Model 71
15. Real-Time Assurance Restores Balance 74
Part IV tHe CollaPSe of dePendenCy modelS
16. Why the Traditional Consultant Model in Food Safety Is Breaking Down 79 17. Stop Paying €1,300 a Day for Dependency 82
18. Good Auditors in a System That Constrains Learning 85
19. The New Audit Reality That Remains Largely Unspoken 88
20. Real-Time Assurance Is Not Anti-Audit 91
Part V InfraStruCture, SoVereIgnty, and g2B modelS
21. From Paper Compliance to Live Assurance 97
22. Real-Time Food Safety Assurance Is No Longer a Vision 101
23. Who Owns the Knowledge Domains Owns the Infrastructure 104
24. Sovereign Real-Time Food Safety Is Ready for G2B Programs 107
25. From €60k to €4k — Why G2B Changes Everything 110
26. Why Emerging Economies Should Skip the Audit Era 113
Part VI aI and SyStem IntellIgenCe
27. AI Will Not Fix Food Safety Without a Knowledge Backbone 119
28. How AI Supervision Becomes Possible 122
Part VII Power, eConomICS, and tHe way forward
29. Why Private Equity Is Attracted to Phase-1 Models 127
30. Why Food Safety Needs Infrastructure — Not Roll-Ups 130
31. We Do Not Need More Certificates — We Need System Intelligence 137
Closing Note — An Epilogue 137
Appendix 1 139
Appendix 2 143
Appendix 3 145
Appendix 4 150
Appendix 5 158
Appendix 6 162
Appendix 7 166
Appendix 8 170

