Yum! Brands Enhances Food Safety in Global Supply Chain Management with FSSC On-Site

Effective supply chain management is crucial for success in today’s dynamic and interconnected business landscape, especially in the food industry. Yum! Brands, a global leader in the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) industry, has been at the forefront of innovation, continuously seeking ways to optimize its supply chain processes. These include the food safety performance of its suppliers.

For this purpose, Yum! uses FSSC On-Site. FSSC On-Site is a secure digital solution that enables transparency on changing certification status for an FSSC 22000 Certified Organization’s sites, suppliers, and partners. The digital system allows companies to import certificate status data of their favorite FSSC 22000 Certified Organizations into their own IT system using our API connection.

Samuel Barrett, Food Safety and Quality Assurance Manager at Yum! Brands, sat down with Foundation FSSC to share Yum!’s experience with FSSC On-Site. The multinational shares its approach to food safety and the added value of integrating FSSC On-Site into its supply chain management system.

Can you please introduce Yum! Brands and your role in a few sentences?

Since our spin-off from PepsiCo in 1997, Yum! Brands has grown to be the world’s largest restaurant company, and our diversified global system includes approximately 1,500 franchisees operating more than 55,000 restaurants in over 155 countries and territories. Our KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell brands are global leaders in the chicken, pizza, and Mexican-style food categories, respectively. The Habit Burger Grill is a fast-casual restaurant chain specializing in made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches, and more. Each ingredient matters in our food and our Yum! Recipe, which clarifies everything from why we exist to how we work and achieve results. We have a bold vision for building the world’s most loved, trusted, and fastest-growing restaurant brands.  I am a Global Food Safety and Quality Assurance Manager at Yum! Brands responsible for our supplier programs. 

What is your approach to managing your supply chain regarding food safety?

Yum! is on a journey to transition its worldwide suppliers away from our second-party food safety audit program, which requires all suppliers to achieve certification to a GFSI benchmarked standard, such as FSSC 22000. We expect all of them to have transitioned to GFSI-recognized certification by the end of 2024. Looking ahead, we will continue relying on GFSI recognition as a foundation for food safety management across our existing and growing supply base. FSSC On-Site allows us to remain updated on the certification type and status of our suppliers. In addition to GFSI benchmarked certification, Yum! maintains a global supplier risk assessment and will leverage our global Food Safety and Quality Assurance community to manage potential food safety risks. 

How does FSSC On-Site help you with an overview of your sites?

We are very excited to utilize FSSC On-Site as part of our supply chain management system. FSSC On-Site has allowed us to maintain a live view of our supplier certification status and removed the need for us to handle PDF certificates, which eliminated a tremendous amount of administration. Thanks to the FSSC On-Site live data, we now have our finger on the pulse of supplier compliance to Yum! requirements, allowing us to react at pace to resolve issues worldwide. FSSC On-Site also enables Yum! to identify potential new suppliers that have already achieved FSSC 22000 certification, supporting our teams in connecting with local suppliers for ingredients where we need them the most. 

What are the most valuable features of FSSC On-Site for you?

The ability to connect our supplier management portal with FSSC On-Site via an API connection, allowing us to pull live certification data directly into our system, has provided significant value to Yum!’s global supplier management and is one of the key features we are most excited about. We no longer have to manually handle PDF certificates, which saves our teams from completing a lot of administration while helping us understand changes that happen during the supplier certification cycle. 

Why should other companies start using FSSC On-Site?

I’d encourage as many businesses as possible to utilize the system as part of their supply chain management process as soon as possible. FSSC On-Site can provide massive value to retailers and QSR businesses with large, international, complex supply chains. It supports a strong understanding of suppliers’ food safety compliance and performance with a live view of food safety certification status. A must-have for every QSR!