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Topic of the Week

Are you a good auditor? How many hazards you can spot?

For a bit of fun and to test your auditing skills let's see how many nonconformities you can identfy in the graphic. Post your answers in the topic at the following link.

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Latest Topics from the Forums

Allergens risk assessment for egg product
Hi all, How to make allergens risk assessment if our product already allergens? What should I do for the assessment?

Thank you

Clause 8.2.3 of ISO 22000:2018
Dear All, New ISO 22000:2018 on June. The Clause 8.2.3 of ISO 22000:2018 (The Organization shall consider: a/ the applicable part of the ISO/TS 220002 series)
How about right think this clause?

Thank you

NIST Handbook 133 Checking the Net Contents of Packaged Goods
We have a new customer that wants us to use this booklet. Does anyone use this booklet to weight ice cream product with. Any information would be great.

What Would you Do? - Whey Powder Recall
We've been watching the spreading recall from the whey powder with Salmonella. Some items, like bread and swiss rolls have been recalled. The bread especially catches my attention - as I assume (And acknowledge I don't know for sure) the powder is baked in and not used after the kill step. (There is also a Ritz recall that seems to be centralized on anything with a cheese filling - so that I would assume may not have been subjected to a kill step).

http://corporate.publix.com/about-publix/newsroom/recalls/captain-john-dersts-old-fashioned-bread

So looking for opinions. If the assumption is true, and the whey powder was used in a product prior to being subjected to a validated kill step, is it best practice to still recall the finished product it was used in? Or would you trust your kill step?
Just looking for opinions and thoughts on this. I personally lean towards trusting the kill step provided I am confident that my flow process eliminates any risk of cross contamination between raw and finished.

Organic program
Good morning, Anyone familiar with the organic program? What kind of forms should be used in case of organic inspection?

Please advise.

Thanks
Alina

Flowchart Feedback
Hi, Could you take a look at my flow chart and see if there's any suggestions you would make to it? This particular one is for naturally leavened bread. I am also planning to make other charts for yeast breads, pretzels, and croissants.
My main area of concern would be the step that shows our raw dough program (step 18 that leads straight to step 24). We deliver raw dough to grocery stores where they then bake it in house. I'm not sure if the arrows are confusing or not since there's a bit of crossover.

Thanks for your help!
Rachel

Shelf life testing SOP
Hello everyone, Anybody have a sample of Shelf life testing SOP or any ideas on the key elements to concentrate on during development of the SOP. It’s my final SOP to develop and I am having challenges. Please help.

Thank you

How much lux is optimum for a chicken processing plant?
Hi, My name is Aaron from Zambia. I am Plant Food Safety Manager for multi-processing plant in my Country. I need help on what the standards say about how much lux is optimum for a chicken processing plant.

Thanks

SQF 2.7.1.3 - Challenging Food Defense Plan
Good Morning, how do SQF-certified companies "challenge" their food defense plans (2.7.1.3)? Is it enough to simply test the security systems in place (locked doors, access points) - or is more required?

Thank you!

Pest trending
Can anyone help me and give idea to do a pest trending chart using dashboard in excel.

Thanks

Labeling procedure
Does anyone have a labeling procedure that meets the BRC standard v7?

Many thanks

Cocoa bean roaster thermometer calibration
Hi there IFSQN members, New to the forum. Based in tropical Vanuatu and advising a small chocolate factory to gain HACCP certification. We have a Besca roaster with a digital temperature gauge but unsure how to calibrate it. Owner manual nowhere to be found.

Have been unable to contact the manufacturer which is based in Turkey.

Hope someone can help.

Thank you,
Dion

TACCP template for Food Defense Requested
Hi, Has anyone got a template for a TACCP or a general Food Defence risk matrix for a bio chemical company making processing aids. Category K under FSSC 22000.

Thanks

Corrective actions NCN software
Hi, Could you recommend software for NCN and corrective actions management? DO any of you use such tool for registering the actions, timing tracking, trends monitoring, statistics. I will appreciate and advice.

High TPC in products
Hi, we are a newly built company that produces dried algae biomass. We use a spray dryer to dry the slurry into fine powder. The temperature set is 200 degree Celsius. The production area and the spray dryer as well as other equipment are cleaned with water and sodium hypochlorite. 70% ethanol is used as disinfectant.
The TPC results are out of specification and keep on increasing. Limit is <1 x10^7.

The slurry was tested before each spray dry and the result we found was around 1x 10^4. However, once it is spray dried, the powder contains more than 1 x 10^7 cfu/g. We did swabs the spray dryer parts and the swab results were >10cfu/10cm2.

I need to decide on the corrective actions and please advice on how to find the source of contamination. I need your help to guide me on this issues (what should I do? and any solution that can be done to encounter this issue).

I really appreciate your help.

Thanks

How do you specify requirements for pest control service providers?
Hi team, the organisation in the food chain shall ensure that all services that may impact on food safety shall have specified requirements which are regularly review. My question is how do you specify requirements for pest control service providers, how do I assess this services to approve they demonstrate compliance with specified requirements? How will I monitor this service?
Am implementing the version 4.

Kindly share your experience with me .I have no starting point.

Regards,
Rose

FSMA Requirements Temperature Recorders and Frozen Product Shipment
Is it correct that FSMA does not require temperature recorders on trailers transporting frozen food, since frozen product shipment does not render the food 'unsafe' during transportation?

Also, would like to know your thoughts on rejecting a trailer of frozen product with trailer ambient temperature at 23 F (tail end of the trailer), 19 F (mid section of the trailer), and 14 F (nose end of the trailer)?

Thank you.
Piki

Temperature Record on refrigerated lorry
Hi All, Is it a MUST to record the temp on refrigerated lorry? How often the recording need to be done?

BSFS Counter Sampling
Hi, anyone know about BSFS counter sampling? I'm in the dark on this? How is the procedures like?

Can barcodes and production date & time be used as a batch?
Dear Members, I have a question regarding serial/batch/lot numbers of products. I am working in governmental organization. Very often we meet with problem "how to identify imported products serial/batch/lot numbers". Sometimes inspectors just cannot find it. My question barcodes and production date&time can be used as a serial/batch/lot numbers to identify and track food product and help in case of withdrawal and recall? Because as I now some barcodes (or all of them) contain information about serial/batch/lot numbers even item.

Thanks in advance

Best regards,
Saida S

Dietary Supplement label approval process
I'm helping a company get some processes defined and written down. There seems to be a lot of disconnect from purchasing, design and actual use of labels. Is there someone who has a process I could use to make sure I'm hitting all of the important marks of the process? e.g.-who gives labels part numbers? how do you confirm that the received label is the one you ordered?

Thanks!

SQF mock recall with company secret recipes
Hi everyone. I currently work for a family company that produces pasta sauces. During our last audit we had a non-conformity relating to our mock recall procedure. The auditor said we must have a log of weights for each ingredient going into each batch of product, as well as the ingredient suppler lot numbers. We have always kept track of the supplier lot number, but the auditor mentioned we specifically lost points due to not keeping track of certain ingredients weights going into the batch. For instance, we know the ingredient weights of 7/10 ingredients, but for the 3/10 ingredients we do not know the weights as the owners personally mixes the 'family secret seasoning'. To be clear, we know every ingredient going into the product and their lot numbers. There are just a few ingredients where the owner does not disclose the weights so he can keep his family-secret private.

This is an issue for our owners as they want their recipes to be kept a secret for personal reasons of their own.

Does anyone have any idea how we can keep our owners secret recipe private, while also adhering to the SQF requirement?

Thanks

SQF 2.1.2.5, 2.5.3.2 & 2.5.4.3 - Statistical Process Control
Hi, I am looking at SQF 2.1.2.5, 2.5.3.2 & 2.5.4.3 which is about statistical process control. Can anyone share anything on this please as we have to close out an audit. Would anyone have an sop on this
Thanking you cheers Carol

Handling of Potentially unsafe products Clause 7.10.3.2
Hello brilliant minds, please provide me clarity on this clause; Evaluation for release
Each lot of product affected by the nonconformity shall only be released as safe when any of the following conditions apply:

a) evidence other than the monitoring system demonstrates that the control measures have been effective;

b) evidence shows that the combined effect of the control measures for that particular product complies with
the performance intended (i.e. identified acceptable levels as identified in accordance with 7.4.2);

c) the results of sampling, analysis and/or other verification activities demonstrate that the affected lot of
product complies with the identified acceptable levels for the food safety hazard(s) concerned.

I work for a seasonings/flavor blending company that utilises salt as a major ingredient, MSG, herbs & spices in descending order.
Our expiry dates are 1 year old and many times, slow moving products expire while at dry, ambient storage.

Is it possible to release a dry seasoning blend (past expiry date) back into production and rework into a larger batch say (5kg in 1000kg) without sending a product for micro evaluation to an external lab?

We will of course do an organoleptic report to verify quality of the product, review C.O.A's (to ensure ingedients used for the blend are still within expiry date) and add the production record to show control during blending. Will this suffice?

Sanitizer....contaminated?
I would like your help with a situation. We were having some issue with the food contact surface swabs post sanitation, since we were getting high count (APC).
After looking for the cause, we tested the sanitizer itself and turns out it was contaminated (APC >1000 CFU/ml) at the point of use. We were using Quats from a local manufacturer.

I've seen some recalls of contaminated sanitizers/disinfectants used for hospitals over the past few years. But not a lot of info for the sanitizer used in the food industry (or at least I haven't found it yet).

Have anyone gone through a situation like this? Are quats more susceptible than other sanitizers (for example peracetic acid)?

We already change the product. But I'm curious about it...

I would appreciate your thoughts

3rd Party Audit Bodies for sister companies
Hello everyone, can somebody recommend whether it is better for two sister companies to have the same 3rd party audit body or choose a different agency. We currently get SAI GLOBAL audited and have been doing it for 3 years, and our sister company is having their first audit and considering to start with AIB agency. I believe it would be easier on us to have the same agency since we already know the standards, however would it be a good idea to try AIB and compare to see which one we like best?

I will appreciate any advice!

What micro testing should be done on vacuum packed potatoes?
Can anyone advise on what micro testing should be done on vacuum packed potatoes with a shelf life of 7 days.

HACCP Certification Bodies - Canada Wide
I work in the wine industry and our company has many facilities from Western Canada to Eastern Canada - so we are looking for a certifying body for our HACCP programs. We currently use a company but have been told by an auditor that they do not have any food manufacturer experienced auditors for our program. So we are looking at other options. Some names that have come up are SAI, SGS, NSF and TRC - just wondering if anyone has any experience with their auditors or the companies and if they would be willing to PM or answer me on here as to the good, bad and ugly of the company. And if there are others that would be able to service our Canadian multi facilities.

Thanks so much, excited to have stumbled across this forum, have so many other questions !

Sources of Information (Clause 2.3.2)
Just curious how others gather their sources of information and references to legislation for this clause. I use www.legislation.gov.uk and eur-lex.europa.eu but I am hoping someone has a time saving way of doing this as it takes so long. Any suggestions welcome...

Salmonella specs
Hi everyone I have some questions, we process raw unpasteurized and pasteurized almonds. recently we got a visit from a customer, we use a salmonella detection test (Romer Labs Rapid Check) the food sample size for this test is 25g, but the customer said that the minimum amount should be 100g, so on the reports the specs should be "salmonella Negative/100g" but the test its been created just for 25g, so my question is if we have to get 4 samples of 25g from the same lot?

Micro limits for animal feeds
Hi All, A lot of the information you find for micro specifications of food products pertains to human food and I am finding it hard to correlate some of it to animal feeds. Salmonella is an easy negative but standard plate counts and coliforms are a bit more difficult. For instance, our current spec is less than 10 cfu/g for total coliforms. This is based on what we've seen from a similar human food.

I don't know if we are being too conservative with these values because I cannot find good data on the micros for feeding cows. The other thing we consider is that humans are handling our products so we keep that in mind when we set our specs.

Any insights or suggested readings are appreciated.

Thanks for the help!

Coliform activity in shelf studies
We are doing multiple shelve studies on multiple products. The most recent seafood salad product had a day one coliform of:

ONLY TOTAL PLATE COUNT FOOD CMMEF, APHA CHP 7, FDA BAMINE CHP 3, AOAC 990.12
40,000 CFU/g
COLIFORM BY PETRI FILM 1,500 CFU/g AOAC 991.14
YEASTS 30 CFU/g
EF APHA CHP 21
MOLDS 450 CFU/g CMMEF APHA CHP 21

PRODUCT WFM LEMON DILL TUNA SALAD (REF# BS33524)
PACKAGE IN SEALED PACKAGE
CUST ID SHELF LIFE STUDY - DAY 1 - 7/13/2018
LOT# 193
ANALYTE RESULT UNITS METHOD REFERENCE
TOTAL PLATE COUNT FOOD CMMEF, APHA CHP 7, FDA BAM
ONLINE CHP 3, AOAC 990.12 6,900 CFU/g
COLIFORM BY PETRI FILM 90 CFU/g AOAC 991.14
YEASTS <10 CFU/g CMMEF APHA CHP 21
MOLDS <10 CFU/g CMMEF APHA CHP 21

Consensus is the product is too far out of speck to be useful in any shelf life study. It would not last 12-18 days. Do I have this right that the product failed on day 1? I would use another liquid to do my shelf life study. Would someone comment on the coliforms and should I continue the shelf life study or not

Environmental Monitoring Program
Greetings everyone, I am preparing for our Audit at the end of the month and came across the 2.4.8 Environmental Monitoring section in module 2. From everything I have looked up and read, plus with the implementation notes, this section seems to be a bit redundant in regards to the HACCP plan we already have in place.

Am I wrong? What are the major differences between the two? Does anyone have any examples of an Environmental Monitoring Program that they have used in the past?

Just looking for some guidance in developing a plan, or just trying to see if it is even necessary at all if we already have a Food Safety HACCP Plan in place. Our facility only deals in food packaging manufacturing so we have no food stuffs in our facility ever.

Thank you

Customer complaint handling procedure
Dear All, please help me to upgrade the existing SOP for handling of customer complaints as it is very basic. If someone would like to share with me a advanced SOP for customer complaint handling specially manufacture of bottled water, it will be a great help for me.

Athula

Experience selling to the US Department of Defense (DoD)?
First off, I apologize if I posted in the incorrect forum, I wasn't quite sure what to nest this under. I work for a small bakery manufacturer. Recently we were approached by a new broker, hoping to land us a contract with the US DoD, specifically with having our products in military barracks (not retail commissaries). Currently we are not certified by a GFSI auditing scheme, which the broker states would not be a problem. He also stated we would not need to be audited by them since the food is "going directly to the troops and not base commissaries for retail purchase" - his exact words, which I found a bit odd.

Does anyone have any experience or insight when it comes to the requirements of selling to the US DoD? As a smaller manufacturer, I want to be sure we would not be biting off more than we can chew.

Many Thanks!

BRC Global standard implementation
Dear All, I have been an IFSQN member since I was a student and now that I have finished my MSc in food sciences, I am preparing an interview for a quality manager position for a company that manufactures cooked poultry meat. The company is certified HACCP and BRC systems and I would like to ask for your assistance in identifying crucial information that I should focus on in a such interview.

J.

About the IFSQN

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Edition 348, July 24, 2018