Food Safety Talk Newsletter Issue 167, October 01, 2014 Hello again from your team at the IFSQN - delivering you the latest Q & A's from our popular

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Food Safety Talk Newsletter

Issue 167, October 01, 2014

Hello again from your team at the IFSQN - delivering you the latest Q & A's from our popular discussion forums.

Best Wishes,
Michelle Timperley
The International Food Safety & Quality Network

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Latest Jobs

Quality Manager (Good Communication Skills A MUST!)

AdvancePierre Foods
Enid, Oklahoma, USA
AdvancePierre Foods, a leader in the food industry, is a rapidly growing company that values a talented, diverse and dedicated workforce. We have an opening for Quality Assurance Manager. Our rapid growth allows us to provide a wide array of developmental opportunities, and we reward associates who are results-oriented, live up to their commitments, and who can align their work activities with the goals of the organization.

Mechanical Designer

Mettler Toledo PI
Tampa, Florida, USA
Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following:

Designs quality systems using manufacturing procedures within Mettler Toledos guidelines while maintaining the schedule
Designs systems based on design-function relationships, serviceability, materials and methods engineering, production costs, and client specifications
Maintains highest achievable 5S ratings throughout all areas of responsibility
Always considers the company Green Initiative when planning activities, procuring supplies or disposing of materials or other assets

All Jobs >>

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October 2014 Poll

Has the number of food safety audits decreased with the introduction of GSFI audits?
GFSI audits are now mandated widely; of course there are many benefits to certification, but the systems do take a lot of time and effort to develop and maintain. The question is does the investment in time get paid back with a reduction of customer audits?

Vote and Add Your Comments >>

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Masswelcomemat

New Member Introductions

Greetings from Central California
25 ‎September ‎2014
Hello Everyone! I'm a Quality Assurance Manager for an ice cream company in Modesto, CA. I'm a former USDA Food Inspector and Consumer Safety Inspector, but I decided to try out the green grass on the other side of the fence. I'm glad to be amongst a group of individuals with similar duties and responsibilities. If anyone has a question related to USDA FSIS inspection, please feel free to ask. I will do my best to answer. I'm sure I will be asking you guys questions every now and then, too.

Joy Weiman

84 New Members since last newsletter
Total Membership 27,377

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Featured Topic

Taking Over SQF System - Need Help!
25 ‎September ‎2014
First things first - I may be in over my head. I just started at a new company and they have an audit coming up in approx. 6 weeks. That being said...Nothing has been done since the last audit.
Nothing.

The record documentation and verification fell off about 6 months ago and I figure that is where I should focus my efforts for the time being until I get the hang of the process. The whole system needs to be Verified and Validated. All procedures, SOP's and forms need to be reviewed, including HACCP and well...you get the picture. Lots of work to be done.

My question is, where should I even start? Should I just go section by section or would you recommend me working on the more important elements first, like HACCP and Sanitation? Are there things I can/should let slide? I am basically the only one at this place that knows anything about SQF so I can't really get advice from anyone else. If you were faced with this same situation, what would you do???

Thanks,
AS

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All New Discussion Topics

How to verify and validate a Magnet program?
01 ‎October ‎2014
Hello Everyone!!! I need some guidance on how to verify and validate a Magnet program. Like in other places, the debate is who is responsible for maintaining verification and validation of the magnet program? Which is part of our foreign material and which is part of our HACCP Plan? The Departments in question are:

Maintenance
Quality Assurance and Control
Production

Any comments will be greatly appreciated.

Have a great week!!!!!!

CCP Instruction For X-Ray Machine
01 ‎October ‎2014
Hi, We recently purchased X-ray machine to detect foreign matters in baked cookies and which are aluminum foil wrapped. I need help with writing up the CCP work instruction for X-ray machine.

Another question is, X-ray machine cannot detect aluminum due to low density. Should my product first pass through metal detector first to control aluminum foreign matters and other metals like Fe and S.S and then through the X-ray machine at last to control foreign matters other than metals? If I put the x-ray machine as the last step on this cookie line after labelling, how do I justify auditor that I am controlling the aluminum foreign matter.
Thanks,
Konesh

CCP Determination for Blast Freezing
01 ‎October ‎2014
Hello All, I need some guidance on a process step for my HACCP Plan. The auditor said that I didn't mention the step in my determination/analysis of CCPs. It is listed on my process diagram, but determined not to be a food safety concern. The auditor wants to see it on the CCP determination with an explanation as to why it is not a CCP. Anyone have a suggestion on how to document that?

Thanks

Shelf life analysis of confectionery products
01 ‎October ‎2014
Hi everybody. It is the first time, I have written here. My English is not so good, so If I cannot express myself, sorry for that. I have a question and if you can help me, I'd appreciate it. I make shelf life analysis of confectionery products, and use climate cabin at 30 C. But I want to shorten period of shelf life test. So could I increase temperature into climate cabin? Do you know how many degrees of confectionery products can actually melt? Especially Marshmallows.

Thank you in advance.

Coke audits
30 ‎September ‎2014
Am curious has anyone experienced a Coke packaging audit?

Is there an updated version of SQF Packaging?
30 ‎September ‎2014
Hello All, My name is Jim, I'm new to this site and first time posting. I'm a compliance / QA Officer with a food packaging company in the US. I have been in food manufacturing pretty much all my life. Packaging is a bit new to me. Different ball game I guess you can say. Well I need some help, The packaging company I'm with is / has been AIB certified with superior ratings for years on end. Now they want to get into GFSI - SQF. I'm very familiar with AIB, SQF, BRC and etc. My question is; is there an updated version SQF Packaging? What version should I be using? Does anyone have a copy / download to share...Any help would be appreciated..

Thanks,
Jim

Elaboration of Product Permitted Level
30 ‎September ‎2014
Hi all, I think my question a bit silly, and I’m confuse parameter permitted level was stated in standard. for example, Ammonia parameter maximum permitted level 0.3 means <0.3, and Free Chlorine Residue parameter Not less than 0.2 means >0.2. Is it correct?

Labeling Knives, Scales, and Cutting Boards for Organic Use Only
29 ‎September ‎2014
We are starting to designate certain knives, scales, and cutting boards for organic use only. How do or would you label these, especially since they get wet and go through washing/cleaning many times throughout the day?

Lactobacillus limits in final product
29 ‎September ‎2014
We make pickles, relishes and brined vegetables. I am wondering if there is any information on final testing limits of Lactobacillus in these products. We ferment all our vegetables and pasteurize them before cutting and adding the other ingredients.

Example declaration stating allergen free, gluten free and non GMO
29 ‎September ‎2014
Can anyone help on how to write a declaration to show that our food products are allergen free, gluten free and non GMO.
We are producing RTEs..

Regards,
BENITO.

Train-the-Trainer
29 ‎September ‎2014
Hi Everyone, I am attempting to implement a train-the-trainer program for our company but do not want or need a 3 + day workshop. I would rather not have to purchase any in-depth programs either. I would really like to have a 1 - 2 hour class that will highlight some of the needed skills to effectively train other associates. Does anyone know of something like this?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Chris

I'm looking for a good supplier of E466 from Europe
27 ‎September ‎2014
Hi All, I’m looking a good supplier the E466 from Europe. Can someone suggest me the company name that I could directly contact them?

Regards
saqib

Trailer Washing SOP or Training Aid
26 ‎September ‎2014
Does anyone have a Trailer washing SOP (refrigerated trailers) or Training aids to share?

Micro Limits for Food Packaging
26 ‎September ‎2014
Hi All, Is there an acceptance limit for mold & yeast in food packaging for the dairy industry? We have an outside lab perform a rinse test on our product (cups for dairy) monthly, reporting results as a count. There is a specified limit for bacteria, but I cannot find a limit for mold.

Thanks for the help!

Wood Contamination
26 ‎September ‎2014
Could anyone help me with a preventive measure for wood contamination. A little info: customer found wood in a combo of meat, in the middle of the combo. I've conducted an investigation into how this could have happened and am coming up empty handed. Is retraining of our Foreign Material SOP & responsibilities regarding inspection, monitoring, & discovery sufficient? Thank you in advance.

EU - E Numbers
26 ‎September ‎2014
Does anyone know where I can find a downloadable database of EU - E Numbers? I want to cross check US vs EU ingredients.

Best Regards,
Pete

Supplier approval and monitoring of service providers
26 ‎September ‎2014
Hi, I wonder if anyone can help with this, we're going for BRC for Storage and distribution for the first time. We are a medium sized wholesaler of healthy foods and lifestyle products. We have a variety of suppliers, varying from huge multinationals to artisan candle makers in the Lake District with 1 employee. I don't really want to get some of our smaller suppliers filling in really long winded SAQ type forms. Is there a simple document that I can just send to all our suppliers to answer 3.5.1.1 'Specifications or contracts shall exist between the company and the supplier to define the service provided'? Also how do we satisfy 3.5.1.2 'the performance of the supplier shall be monitored and action taken where services fail to meet requirements'. Obviously we do that in practice all the time. If they are a rubbish supplier in one way or another then they get delisted. I'm struggling to know how to demonstrate something to the auditor that doesn't result in a load of unnecessary bureaucracy. Many thanks for any help!

SQF Requirements for Annual Vendor Audits
25 ‎September ‎2014
I am a newly hired QA Manager, preparing for a SQF Level 2 Desk Audit next month. Because of the short time frame, vendor audits are the last thing on my to-do list. I've been through a Level 2 Audit in a previous position, and I think I remember the auditor saying that if a food production facility had vendors/suppliers that had GFSI certification, the annual vendor audit by the food production facility was not required. I've tried looking this up multiple ways online, but am coming up empty. Has anyone heard of this? And if you have, could you post the "chapter and verse" where it can be found? Thanks!

Does anyone know how the BRC defines Foreign Material?
25 ‎September ‎2014
Does anyone know how the BRC defines Foreign Material?

BRC Audit approach
25 ‎September ‎2014
Hello again! I've been preparing for our first BRC audit Packaging Standard Issue#4 for some time now and decided to use this approach. We have programs and documentation systems in place that should be sufficient for this audit although nothing has ever been done to 'tie' it together as one system.
So I've chosen to write a full Food Packaging Safety and Quality Manual based on the BRC standards/Self assessment. I've taken the self assessment and gone through each and every section, could some of you with experience let me know if this sounds like an efficient approach. Below is an example of one section:

1.3 Organizational structure, responsibilities and management authority

Statement of Intent: The company shall have a clear organizational structure and define the responsibilities, reporting relationships and job functions of those personnel whose activities affect product safety, legality, regulatory compliance and quality.

1.3.1 Organizational Structure

Organizational Chart which defines all management’s responsibilities (attached)
Document: Org Chart

Location: HACCP Manual, ***** FS drive

Review Frequency: Annual- reviewed during HACCP review- Scheduled through
MicroMain CMMS Software
Reviewed by: Programs Specialist
Record Retained: HACCP Manual in PS office
This is the format I have used throughout the entire manual, I have attached examples in the appendix for each section, with further documentation available for review of consistency etc.

BRC for Packaging- 5.4.4 Frequency of checks
25 ‎September ‎201
Hi all, This particular area has my head spinning. The standard states: Frequency of checks shall be in accordance with industry-accepted practice or customer requirements and based on risk analysis.
We print labels for food packaging and the occasional food contact packaging, I cannot find any information on what is considered industry-accepted practice, and our customers do not have requirements for frequency of quality checks.
Would it be sufficient if I was to conduct a 'generic' risk assessment for this sub-section. We already have procedures in place (which have been in place for years) for frequency of quality checks during a print run and they have been effective, although I have no documentation as to how we came up with the frequency we currently use and I know BRC loves documentation on EVERYTHING.

Any suggestions??
Craig

Metabolic profiling of rice using GC/MS
25 ‎September ‎2014
I am currently to work on metabolic profiling of rice using GC/MS. If you know any protocol for analysis of sugars, amino acids and lipids in rice please help me. I will be very much grateful for your assistance.

Pre-op checklist
25 ‎September ‎2014
We are looking at revising our pre-op procedures. We are a small operation. I am curious as to what kind of checklists others use during their pre-ops?

Adultaration of Raw Milk received from suppliers
24 ‎September ‎2014
From Iran, We get our raw milk for processing in dairy products as like as pasteurized milk from a lot of sources. They have no any identified for our government and they have for example 5-6 cows. In small amount. But they sold their raw milk to the factories very cheap. And we have a lot of problems for example they added a lot of water to their raw milk or palm oil. And we have aflatoxin in our milks in excess amount. Unfortunately our factories have not updated equipments and tools in their labs. This made a lot of problems in our country. Our Government decided to design a program for monitoring of small farm. What’s your opinion?

Thanks a lot

bahram doulati

Need recommendations for flowcharting program
24 ‎September ‎2014
Hi all, Can any recommend a good flowcharting program? Must be windows compatible, easy to use, etc. I have past experience with Visio, but would appreciate any comments on if that is still good, or if there are others out there that are better.

Many thanks!
Elise

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