The Winners are. . . The D.L. Newslow & Associates, Inc. team Debby Newslow , Ron Potochar , Alanna Barfield , and Nancy Rich were honored to attend SQF Unites 2026 , an event that continues to bring together food safety professionals from around the world to collaborate, learn, and strengthen our shared commitment to safe, high‑quality food. This year’s conference delivered valuable insights, practical tools, and forward‑thinking discussions that our team is already integrating into...

How to Teach Your Team to Think Like GFSI Risk-Based Auditors. Risk-based thinking isn’t new, but GFSI Benchmarking Requirement has pushed it from just a good idea to a core expectation across every major food safety scheme. Whether you are following SQF, BRCGS, FSSC22000, or another GFIS recognized program, auditors now expect your team to understand why something is risky and not to just follow a procedure. Risk-based thinking is teachable. When teams learn to think like auditors, they make...

In food safety programs, few terms are mixed up as often, or as consequentially, as Corrective Action and Preventive Action. Managers use them interchangeably, auditors flag them repeatedly, and teams struggle to implement them effectively. The result? Recurring issues, frustrated staff, and systems that look compliant on paper but fail in practice. The truth is simple: If you don’t understand the difference, your corrective actions will keep failing. The confusion is not only a vocabulary...