3.5.1 Raw material risk assessment

V5 talked about a supplier approval procedure; V6 now asks for a documented risk assessment on each raw material.

If a product questionnaire that is filled out by the supplier asks questions about allergen, foreign body, mirco and chemical contamination risks, does its review when it is returned constitue a "risk assessment". Can the questionnaire be stamped and signed off as Approved (or otherwise if not satisfactory) or does all the information have to be lifted out and processed separately?

V5 talked about a supplier approval procedure; V6 now asks for a documented risk assessment on each raw material.

If a product questionnaire that is filled out by the supplier asks questions about allergen, foreign body, mirco and chemical contamination risks, does its review when it is returned constitue a "risk assessment". Can the questionnaire be stamped and signed off as Approved (or otherwise if not satisfactory) or does all the information have to be lifted out and processed separately?

Dear D-D,

Yes, the supplier questionnair can be signed/stamped/approved. But with this you willcomply to 3.5.2.
The risk assessment, that is mentioned in 3.5.1, should already be in your HACCP-study (hazard identification and risk assessment). This is a requirement of the Codex.
If you do not know the potential hazards of your raw materials, how do you know what questions to ask in your questionnairs? How do you know how to control the hazards and on what to inspect the raw materials?
There should be a raw material risk assessment already in your HACCP-study.

Let me know, what your business is, and I will give you a good example.

Thanks for the fast reply. We are in extraction and blending of dried plant based materials to make oleoresins and oils (i.e. low risk flavours).

In the HACCP plan we do consider raw material risks e.g. for certain extracts (peppers etc) we need to do azo dye testing on anything we make and anything we buy must come with a clean test certificate. Other products might be affected by pesticide residues so are similarly tested / supplied with clean cert. For micro, such products are not affected and/or any bugs are killed in the process, which is well known and documented. For foreign bodies, all products are filtered. Where I think we need to dig further is allergen issues. Most suppliers have comprehensive allergen statements but some may need to clarify further. All of this information is gathered in our product questionnaire (one per product) and we have a separate supplier questionnaire (one per supplier). Our HACCP plans are by product family rather than individual product as this would be impractical.

Basically I am trying to figure out what needs to be modified for V6...

If I compare, what you write here, whit the requirement 3.5.1.1 from BRC Food iss 6, I indeed only miss a risk assessment on allergens.
If I was your auditor, I would want to see that the risks idenfied are controlled in one way or another, e.g. test certificates, filtration. You actually mentioned some control measures in your post, so I believe that you have these.
It is a good thing to do these assessments per raw material group, rather then for all raw materials itself.

It seems that you not need to do any big modifications for req 3.5.1.1, bu maybe some other members do have some tips for you.