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Best Answer , 12 December 2013 - 04:29 PM

Thank you Tony and Charles.

 

Now I have better understanding on this. Even though the risk category is low for fruits and vegetables, recent Melon Balls and Pomegranate issues shaken consumer trust. 

 

I will prepare a separate procedure and cover these. I will update with auditor's comment once I get audited.

 

Thanks again.


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mapry2

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Posted 11 December 2013 - 03:24 PM

Hi All,

 

We are frozen fruit and vegetable repacker. Because of the nature of commodity, we have to deal with a lot of one time suppliers.

 

We are SQF Level 2 certified and my challenge is how to accommodate these one time supplier in my supplier approval program. Can some one please guide here with the procedure and requirements keeping the SQF 2000 Level 2 requirements in mind.

 

Thanking in advance.

 

Regards,

Prasant



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Posted 11 December 2013 - 03:51 PM

Prasant,

 

My suggestion is to have within your supplier approval program a provision for these suppliers "Short Term Supplier" or something as their name and request from them at least an insurance certificate and 3rd party or GFSI audit if it's reasonable to be able to request those I don't know if you have one a year or 100 a year.

 

Then I would retain the records for at least to the shelf life of the product that you made, to the minimum length legally required, or whatever your comfortable with.

 

I hope this helps.


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gcse-fhp

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Posted 11 December 2013 - 09:23 PM

What exactly in the "nature of commodity"  that makes it necessary for you to buy from one-time suppliers - the perishable nature, availability, or what?

What exactly is a "one time supplier" - they sell to you once and they cease to exist, have no more supply in future seasons, or what?

 

Having the documentation as MerleW suggested is a good place to start but I see an underlying problem in your operation with possible consequences that the suggested documentation does not resolve. Answers to the above questions and others that arise may lead to the development of a "one time" supplier approval protocol that actually enhances the realized quality and safety of your products beyond the suggested paperwork.


Edited by gcse-fhp, 11 December 2013 - 09:31 PM.

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http://www.afisservices.com/gcse-fhp/index.html

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Jus'me

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Posted 11 December 2013 - 09:30 PM

We are also SQF level 2 certified and have had to deal with this same issue recently.  We have a provision written in our Approved Supplier Program on how to address emergency suppliers.  In our case the material can be accepted into the building but placed on Hold until the required documents are received and the Food Safety Team can review and approve the supplier.  These suppliers must provide all the information we require of all our suppliers, including completing a food safety questionnaire.  Of course make sure you complete a risk assessment of the supplier and make sure they are compliant to all the regular requirements you have for your more permanent suppliers.  It can be time consuming albeit, but if you can afford to take the time necessary, helps make sure you are staying compliant with your own programs to ensure providing a safe product.  If not, then you can draft your own program to address the situation as long as it is effective and you follow it, that is the nice thing about SQF you can determine the best way for you as an individual company to comply with the standards.     



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mapry2

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Posted 11 December 2013 - 11:28 PM

We are also SQF level 2 certified and have had to deal with this same issue recently.  We have a provision written in our Approved Supplier Program on how to address emergency suppliers.  In our case the material can be accepted into the building but placed on Hold until the required documents are received and the Food Safety Team can review and approve the supplier.  These suppliers must provide all the information we require of all our suppliers, including completing a food safety questionnaire.  Of course make sure you complete a risk assessment of the supplier and make sure they are compliant to all the regular requirements you have for your more permanent suppliers.  It can be time consuming albeit, but if you can afford to take the time necessary, helps make sure you are staying compliant with your own programs to ensure providing a safe product.  If not, then you can draft your own program to address the situation as long as it is effective and you follow it, that is the nice thing about SQF you can determine the best way for you as an individual company to comply with the standards.     

 


Thank you all for the responses.

 

MerleW

 

I have around 10% suppliers like this types. I can hardly get any documents from them. I try to get at least COA but I do not succeed all the times.

 

gcse-fhp:

 

We deal with frozen fruits. Fresh market takes the biggest chunk of the market share. So we do not have much choice here. Sometimes we have to deal with small time farmers or processors. And if there is a bad crop, we have to struggle to get the volume to keep up the market commitment.

 

 

Jus'me

 

As I did mention these small processor do not have any valid food safety system or does not even provide a COA. 

 

I can not demand a lot from them as they know very well commodity like frozen fruits has very high demand in the market.

 

 

 

My supplier approval says, the supplier should sign letter of guarantee and complete food safety questionnaire. They should have a valid food safety system  and provide me a COA for every load.

 

But I am trying to develop a protocol as guided here to accommodate these. I can have in house raw material testing done for these loads. Will this be sufficient to evaluate the food safety risk ? 



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Posted 12 December 2013 - 03:35 AM

Dear prasant,

 

No direct experience with fresh fruit produce but generically the answer to yr query is typically via a risk assessment from  auditorial POVs.

 

IMEX of other fresh inputs, COAs are often a non-existent dream. And usually auditors will be equally aware of this.

 

As per a parallel current thread, many locations have no familiarity/belief in letters of guarantee however I anticipate a mutually agreed/signed specification would be regarded as equivalent for audit purposes. The latter is often regarded as the minimal acceptable requirement IMEX (non-SQF)

 

Many companies categorise their inputs into high/low risk based on theory/literature/experience and write control procedures accordingly. 

Generically, i expect that fresh fruit produce is regarded as low risk (eg can refer to the appropriate SQF module's page tabulating associated status factors)  but there are several recent examples of microbiological exceptions occurring which have somewhat tightened the situation. As a result and depending on product/process, it may be a case-by-case situation.

 

GAP systems are one common pre-harvest gate option for fresh produce control.

 

Rgds / Charles.C


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


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Posted 12 December 2013 - 06:45 AM

Hi All,

 

We are frozen fruit and vegetable repacker. Because of the nature of commodity, we have to deal with a lot of one time suppliers.

 

We are SQF Level 2 certified and my challenge is how to accommodate these one time supplier in my supplier approval program. Can some one please guide here with the procedure and requirements keeping the SQF 2000 Level 2 requirements in mind.

 

Thanking in advance.

 

Regards,

Prasant

 

Hi Prasant,

 

I would normally cover this off by having an 'in house' specification and specific sampling plan - materials would need to be inspected prior to use.

 

Attached File  MSP 001 Non Approved Supplier Sample Plan.pdf   335.63KB   280 downloads

 

One concern will be things that are not routinely tested such as pesticides. In this case I would be requesting your 'letter of guarantee' - confirmation of approval from a local authority and a statement of compliance with all relevant legislation.

 

Regards,

 

Tony


Edited by Tony-C, 12 December 2013 - 06:48 AM.


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Mr. Incognito

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Posted 12 December 2013 - 03:32 PM

Jus'me:

 

I would be concerned with brining product into the plant before you know if they have things like pest control programs on what you might bring into your plant. 

 

Prasant:

 

I suspected that you were dealing with something like that.  Yes that can be hard to deal with hopefully some of the suggestions above will help.


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mapry2

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Posted 12 December 2013 - 04:29 PM   Best Answer

Thank you Tony and Charles.

 

Now I have better understanding on this. Even though the risk category is low for fruits and vegetables, recent Melon Balls and Pomegranate issues shaken consumer trust. 

 

I will prepare a separate procedure and cover these. I will update with auditor's comment once I get audited.

 

Thanks again.





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