Compliance & Sourcing
Raising the bar on food safety
As we expand our food sales footprint across our retail markets, our goal is to bring affordable food to our customers, while continuously raising the bar on food safety.
SPARK (Sustainable Paperless Auditing and Record Keeping) is a technology-based system utilized by our associates in completing food safety tasks in our stores and clubs. The SPARK system utilizes innovative hand-held technology, Bluetooth communication and a state-of-the-art temperature-measuring device to enhance our food safety management system at store and club level.
The hand-held system provides us with a platform to manage food safety with the highest level of confidence by capturing more than 5 million food-safety-related checks on a monthly basis. This level of food safety verification far exceeds the level of oversight that can be provided by third-party or regulatory inspections. The data collected have changed the paradigm on how we manage food safety.
SPARK overview
- Web-based alerting for scheduled food safety checks
- Icon-driven tasks tied to our Food Safety High Five
- Prompted corrective actions
- Real-time reporting and data capture
- Elimination of paper-based food safety processes
- Simplification of use
- Risk reduction
- Promote desired behaviors and task
- Instructional
- Visibility
- Accountability
SPARK allows us to capture important data with the ability to drill down to store/club level. This capture of real-time data has helped in identifying specific patterns or trends to help ensure our customers are purchasing food products that are not only safe but also of the highest quality.
As Walmart continues to expand operations in multiple countries, the SPARK system will continue to mitigate risk and drive a culture of food safety around the world in helping to achieve the desired food safety behaviors. We will continue to leverage the SPARK system as we incorporate the technology into our global markets.