Sponsored by     Last Friday's Free Webinar FDA's Sanitary Transport Rule: Who it Applies to and its Impact on the Food Transportation Industry V

FOOD SAFETY NEWS LETTER
***

Sponsored by

sf360-190x140-newsletter
 
190x140 Guides
IFSQN Newsletter Img-01
 
IFSQN 300x250
***

Last Friday's Free Webinar

FDA's Sanitary Transport Rule: Who it Applies to and its Impact on the Food Transportation Industry

Video Recording and Presentation Slides from last Friday's webinar.
The FSMA rule on Sanitary transport of human and animal food advances FDA’s effort to protect foods from farm to table by keeping product safe from contamination during transportation. This presentation will discuss the requirements and likely impact for all stakeholders including, brokers, loaders, transporters, and receivers.

Capture
***
joanne

Dr Joanne Taylor, Training & Research Director, TSI

This Friday's Free Webinar

What Is Culture Excellence?

Taking place:
Friday, January 20, 2017 - 03:00 PM - 04:00 PM UK Time (10.00 AM Eastern US Start)

Presenter:
Dr Joanne Taylor, Training & Research Director, TSI

Webinar Overview:
Food manufacturers have been looking for 'Cultural Excellence' for a number of years now, with interest growing from large manufacturers through to retailers and global brands. The purpose of this webinar is to provide you with an overview of Cultural Excellence, the four key areas of focus and to cover the Food Safety Culture Excellence Assessment Module, for any organisation who is looking to measure and improve their culture, available exclusively from BRC Global Standards, in partnership with TSI

Register for Free >>

***
tony

Tony Connor, Chief Technical Advisor, IFSQN

Upcoming Premium Webinar

Practical Internal Auditor Training for Food Operations

Taking place:
Friday, January 27, 2017 - 02:00 PM - 06:00 PM UK Time (09.00 AM Eastern US Start)

Presenter:
Tony Connor, Chief Technical Advisor, IFSQN

Webinar Overview:
Internal auditing is included in Food Safety Management Requirements of the GFSI Guidance Document and as such is a compulsory element of GFSI benchmarked standards including BRC, SQF, IFS and FSSC 22000.

Internal auditing is a tool to verify the effectiveness of the food safety management system, identify and correct non-conformity and demonstrate continuous improvement.

This interactive IFSQN online webinar will enable participants to develop practical knowledge of the principles of internal auditing enabling them to participate as part of your internal audit team.

The webinar provides instruction on how to implement an Internal Audit system and how to prepare, conduct and report on an internal audit.

The course is suitable for all personnel working in food manufacturing, food handling, food storage or food distribution operations.

Registration $97 per person >>

***
mem

New Member Introductions

Hello
Good day every one. I’m Albert, a new member of the group. I love foods and Safety and Quality is always matters to me. I’m newly appointed Production Quality Manager of Catering company in UAE. During my training in Highfield, my mentor introduce this site to me...

Have a blessed day ahead

New Food Safety Coordinator
Hello everyone, my name is Juanita, and I am the new Food Safety Coordinator for PVP. Being new at this position I have several questions that I know you experts will help me better understand. I'm seeking any and all advice I can get from each and everyone of you. Thanks in advance for all your help!

First time poster, long time lurker
Hi all, having just made my first post (new topic no less) decided I better introduce myself. I'm the quality manager (maternity cover) for a well known muesli/nut/baked bar manufacturer in Auckland, New Zealand. Love the wide variety of topics here with a range of opinions.

Looking forward to engaging a bit more.

Thanks

New to This Organization
Hello, I am new to the IFSQN organization. I've been searching for additional resources for latest data on GMPs and compliance issues in areas outside of my industry. I am a quality and food safety manager for a packaging company. We manufacture shipping sacks (BBOM, PBOM, SOM) for various dairy powders, flour, corn, soy, potatoes, rice, feed and seed. I spend most of my time fulfilling requests for technical data sheets, safety data sheets, COAs, material spec sheets, and various compliance docs. I get to handle all the questionnaires and audits. I took classes in business management and industrial supervision at Fullerton College. I am currently enrolled in food safety courses through the distance learning program at North Carolina State University. I have worked for years in the manufacturing environment as a production manager, plant manager, project manager, scheduler/planner, and quality manager, safety officer, purchasing clerk, customer service manager, technical sales support and corporate trainer. I look forward to meeting fellow members on line and at various trade shows related to what we do. I am always willing to share my knowledge and experience. I am also always eager to learn new ways of improvement.

FRANK KRIVASICH
Quality & Food Safety Professional

Click here to say hello >>

***
knife

Topic of the Week

Policy for the control of the use of sharps

Hello everyone, who can give me please an examples of a policy for the control of the use of sharps. Thank you for your help

Read More >>

***

Latest Topics from the Forums

How to clean trough screw conveyor of wheat dampening machine?
There are two screw conveyor that convey wheat from wheat dampening machine to silos How can I make them still clean?

Restrooms - Metered Spray Deodorizers
Hi everyone, Hope you all had a great weekend. Question in regards to air deodorizers for restrooms. I know with BRC, you shouldn't have a strong perfume smell on yourself. But what about the use in the restroom. I wanted to get the metered spray, it will be placed in a high position. I would want to use the fresh linen scent. This is to control odors from frequent use of restrooms, during our heavy season it is needed.

Thanks in advance.

Use and Storage of Wash Down Hoses
Can I get some clarification regarding the use and storage of wash down hoses please:

• Must be food grade - got it.
• Cannot be stored on the floor - got it.

Need clarification on the rest:

1. Can you use a hose reel?
2. What kind of hose reel?
3. Is the reel mounted on the wall?
4. Using hose real does that allow for water to drain out?
5. Do you leave the nozzle on or take it off?
6. Does the hose need to be strung along a wall to properly drain?
7. Help

I can't really seem to find the answers in any of the codes, but may not be looking in the right place either.
Thanks

SQF Secondary Practitioner
Hello all! I just started working at my company about 7 months ago and I took over the position of someone who acted as our "Secondary" SQF Practitioner. I know that one of the requirements to be an SQF Practitioner is to have HACCP training. I have never received any HACCP training and do not have any type of Certificate or Certification for HACCP. My question is: Am I allowed to be a secondary SQF Practitioner without HACCP training? We do have an SQF Practitioner who does have HACCP training and has been working in the field for 19+ years.

Thanks in advance for your help!

FSMA / FSVP Guidance please - What do we need to do?
Hi All, Just looking for a little guidance as to what we need to do in relation to FSMA for foreign suppliers. We are a UK based BRC certified manufacturer of a branded product. The brand holder (our customer) wants to expand their market into the USA within the next 12 months or so. Reading on line it is about as clear as mud as to what we as the manufacturer need to have in place in order to ship the product out to the USA on their behalf - FSVP does not appear to be applicable to us as we will not be technically classed as the importer. But what I suppose I am asking is what we need above and beyond the BRC systems we currently have in place in order for us to be approvable - we of course operate HACCP, along with additional vulnerability and site security threat risk assessments as required for BRC. I have read the BRC voluntary module for FSMA which states is only applicable to US operators and most of the points made in this document appear to be wording amends to our system. Do we need to register with the FDA or be subject to additional audit?

Any help / guidance along the correct path will be greatly appreciated

HACCP and food defense
Hello everyone, I’m working in a company of food packaging and I m updating our HACCP analysis. I would like to add the food defense in our HACCP plan because I think it will be easier as we are talking about risks.

Does someone have a model of HACCP+food defense?

Thank you for your help

Can receiving be a CCP?
Dear All, In our recent Supplier Audit one of the nonconformity raised is the non evidence of CL defined. As per HACCP, receiving of fruits & Vegetables and RTE items is a CCP. One of the CL defined is COA for the product received but it is not evidenced. Please help me out to validate this CL or suggest the solution

Regards
Deepti

Setting limits for Legionella in water systems
Hi all ; I need some information about setting legionella limits in tap water (for washing food contact equipment) and drinking water. Since a certain regulation has not been set I am confused about countries' limits. Can anyone help me on this? Or is there anyone designated some limits? If so taking which reference?

Thanks and Regards

Can cold holding be a CCP in no cook process?
Hi everybody, please help me to do the risk analysis of no cook process. The process is described as

Receiving - Store- Preparation-Cold Holding-Serve

How many CCP can be applied to this process

Please assist me.

Regards
Deepti

Requirements for shelf life of frozen food
Requirements for shelf life of frozen food.

Raw material, supplier and packaging risk assessment (BRC)
Hello all, Standard- BRC Product- herbs and spices, blends of herbs and spices, powdered beverage mixes Location- USA (but I'm from UK) Practical experience- not much.

I am currently working on risk assessments for suppliers, raw materials and packaging- attached is the spreadsheet format I am using for the combined assessment for raw materials and suppliers (based on documents found at this forum). We have over 100 suppliers and several hundred products. This is essentially a start-up company as we recently bought a new spice business from a former customer and we are working on all aspects of food safety management, eventually working towards BRC. For now we are just focusing on HACCP/ PRPs/ GMPs and will move onto HARPC/ FSMA compliance later.

Some questions- do you think the info I am obtaining is sufficient for RM/ suppliers? If a supplier has GFSI accreditation, can I automatically consider them low risk? Should that judgement be dependent on audit grade where they are given to me? If so, ideas on what the cut off point for low risk would be between the different standards? (so far I have some BRC, some SQF) Any thoughts on my categories for the split of raw materials? Any good links for information on where I can find information on specific risks (e.g. pathogens associated with a group or fraud/ substitution) for these groups (I have the American Spice Trade Assn documents for this info for spices)?

For packaging suppliers, I found a reference on this forum to some other questions that could be asked that I wasn't familiar with- for migration certificates, is this something that I can expect my packaging suppliers to have (i.e. is it a legal requirement in the US)? Reference was made to PIGS documentation- what is this? It's not easy to search for this acronym on google! Any other good information to ask for the packaging risk assessment?

Sorry for all of the questions, I hope my spreadsheet template gives a little back, and thanks for all the great advice you contributors give!

Ben

Need some help....
Morning, I have been at this company for 3 weeks and trying to sift through their audit process and how they have them set up. I am starting to get them organized, but I have one particular audit I have found I am at a complete loss and hoping I am just having a hand to forehead moment. The audit is called, Annual Product and Process Control PRP and here is how it is stated:

Review the following procedures to determine compliance to documented requirements. Review a sampling of records that verify compliance to the requirements. This is a pass/fail evaluation. If not compliant identify why the facility has failed to meet requirements:

-Production Critical process
-Taste, odor, and appearance testing
-Product testing frequency requirements

I asked a few people here for the procedures we are supposed to review and I got a lot of guesses, but no concrete answers.

I feel there is a lot of ambiguity with the questioning in this audit. I can't find any ties to either ISO or our companies standards with what areas we are to look at or anything remotely close to how this is worded.

There is one area, our sensory program, that would deal with the appearance, aroma, and taste.

My assumption is that a Production Critical Process would be something that was identified in our HACCP, and the Product Testing Frequency would deal with our Quality Assurance (lab protocols).

I am wanting to scrap this one and rewrite it to be more clear.

Does anyone have an audit set up like this who can give me some insight on what exactly the person I took over for was looking for?

Thanks,
Tasha

Help with equipment commissioning SOP
Hello all, I work in for a food and beverage manufacturer and have been charged with creating a long overdue procedure for the commissioning of new equipment. I have a fairly basic checklist to work with, but the idea is to have a written procedure and I was hoping the community might have some examples or ideas they could share. Any help is much appreciated!

Sanitary Knife Storage and Use
Happy Thursday everyone! I am hitting a bit of a self-implicating road block in terms of sanitary knife storage and use. I am looking for a best practice for the daily use, storage, and sanitation of knives used for both opening non-food contact packaging bundles (e.g. outer containers of deli lids, etc.) and food contact bulk material knives.

What is giving me a headache is one particularly large production room that shares 6 different production lines. Even with numbering the knives by line, I am still at the impasse of how to ensure that knives are returned to storage when not in use and...how to keep the holders clean in the first place as our knives are segregated by color for both non-food and food contact use. Other than ordering 20 to 30 separate knife holder stations for ease and accessibility for all employees on the line are there any central storage and usage options that don't present a "non-stored" knife issue if an employee needs to keep a knife on a food contact table for the shift?

This is likely a simple matter that is just generating a risk feedback loop in my head, but any advise or suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Thanks Everyone!

Food Safe Whey Powder & Cocoa Powder Supplier Needed
Hello everyone, I am doing a product development for one of my company's clients and need to source bulk whey powder and cocoa powder from the Asian continent, including China and India.

Given the recent negative stories we have heard about food fraud and food contamination associated with China and other parts of Asia, I am hesitant to trust the suppliers' online profiles only.

Can anyone please give me suggestions for Asian suppliers of whey powder and cocoa powder, whose food safety culture you think you can trust?

Thanks,
Sharon

Metal Detector Log
Greetings! Regarding Metal Detectors and CCP, I want to ensure that I am understanding the process. When it states that metal detector logs should reflect +/-15 minutes, what are inspectors looking for? If I run a test at 10:00 a.m. and stop at 11:00 a.m. and that was the time frame, where does this +/- 15 come in at? Should I show 10:00 am to 11:15 am????

Cleaning & Sanitizing Converting Equipment
Converting Equipment (Sheets & Winders/Slitters). Looking for cleaning and sanitizing products that are compliant with BRC Packaging 5 guidelines and are being used for direct food contact packaging converting in US.

Appreciate your recommendations.

Looking for a good traceability software for a small company
I'm looking for a good traceability software for a small company. Any recommendations?

E.Sakazakii control
Dear All, Need to know the best effective way to prevent and control E.Sakazakii?

Regards,
Omar

Detection of hair inside empty or filled bottles of mayo?
Dear All, mayo Manufacturing company always getting complaints that closed cap mayo contains hair, is there any solution for detection of hair inside empty or filled bottles? I know that preventive measure "Personal hygiene” should be in place, any other solutions,

Thanks,
Omar

PCQI online training
I just got this information from DNV:

http://a4343.actonsoftware.com/acton/rif/4343/s-02ed-1701/-/l-wbx-660818874:57/l-wbx-660818874/showPreparedMessage?sid=TV2:BKk4JcFK2

Perhaps it could be an easier way to get your PCQI training.

Ascorbic Acid Specifications
Hi guys, I'm trying to compile all available specification standards (i.e. CODEX, EU REGULATIONS) of Ascorbic Acid from different country for our reference. So far, the only standard I stumble is from EU regulations. And I didn't found any CODEX standard yet.

I hope somebody will share their file.

Thanks.

4.1 and 4.2 in ISO 9001 /14001
We are struggeling defining our "external and internal issues" and "interested parties". I am afraid that we are making too much out of it - and wonder how simple it could be done.

Would you please show me how you have defined and, mostly, how you set up the documenting part of the task :-)

Thanks

CCP for low water activity, cold pressed barsHi all, first post! We make a range of cold pressed, date based snack bars here in Auckland, New Zealand. The products contain 4 or 5 raw materials, with date paste being the largest raw material by %. The raw materials are mixed together then extruded into a slab, cooled, slit, cut and wrapped.

We have been having a spirited discussion about CCPs for this process. We currently test water activity every 2 hours as a means of controlling microbial growth and call this a CCP. However, at no point in the process is there a specific step where a control is/could be applied to reduce or eliminate the hazard of microbial growth. The water activity of the product is merely a function of the raw materials. Therefore it seems we cannot have a CCP for controlling microbial spoilage if there are no control preventative measures in the process.

Thoughts?

I have also been thinking that we need to assess the true risk of microbial spoilage, as if the RMs are all within spec the risk should be very low.

BRC Requirements for Changing Rooms
Hello, Are changing rooms required if staff does not need to change out of their clothes and wear a smock? Our commodity is low risk, citrus. We have always had PrimusGFS. We are switching over to BRC. Primus does not mention changing rooms.

Thanks in advance.

SQF Food Quality Plan
Hello, our company, which is processing RTE meat products, such as salamis, sausages, bacons and etc. is preparing for the SQF Level 3 Audit. I would like to ask whether you can share some information or provide any references regarding the quality parameters of the rte meat products and how to identify Critical Quality Points?

Thank you in advance.

Does anyone have any experience with the ISO 17024 Standard?
Does anyone have any experience with the ISO 17024 Standard?

***

About the IFSQN

The IFSQN forums are a thriving community with more than 40,000 members from all over the world. A wide variety of topics are discussed daily on the forums including food safety management systems standards such as BRC, SQF, IFS, ISO 22000, FSSC 22000 as well as HACCP, Food Defense and Security, Pest Control, Food Testing, Microbiology, QA/QC, Continuous Improvement and much more.

The forums are a place where members can network, share knowledge and ideas to make food safer around the world - why not join us today!

Forum Home Page
Today’s Active Content
Registration Page
Help Files
Contact Us
New Member Information - Helpful links to get you started

***

Advertising

Learn more about advertising with the IFSQN and to begin creating your own customized program, contact us today.

Edition 275, January 17, 2017

1px