"and get people lined up etc...." Lined up against what, a wall?!?
Congrats on the result - first time against Version 6, can't be disappointed with that. If I may comment on some of the non-conformnces....
1. Make sure your people are not 'customizing' their PPE, we got a minor for people having a knot tied in their mop caps.
Makes my blood boil. I have a policy whereby I inform staff member that if they want to look like Tupac, I can have it arranged. Post his assassination, that is. I know this guy. It's up there with people spelling customising with a z in my book.
2. Make sure your chemical containers are labelled and make sure someone checks them 5 minutes before the auditor goes on the floor ( minor)
Does anyone know of a label for chemical bottles that will not disintegrate on the day of the audit? I still haven't found one.
3. Have someone sensible circulating outside to capture any straying high risk utensils that fall through the wormhole in spacetime that opens in production during audits along with the doors....
"I just had to borrow it for two minutes." Blood boiler.
4. Be sure to do your traceability audit forwards AND backwards.... missed that completely. I had the Final product to Raw material done but not the Raw material to finished product.
Mass balance. I had that on this year's audit. I knew about it, but couldn't be arsed doing it as it would have been an awful lot of bother.
5. Look at your risk assessments in detail especially for allergens, (too complicated a story for here, would need to sit with a bottle of chilled chablis for that one)
Found a delightful rose pinot grigio for 6.99 a bottle in Tesco today. Didn't even think you could make pinot grigio in rose.
6. Be sure to record all your reviews, HACCP QM etc...... and this requires more than updating the revision number on the document.
Could you expand on this one please?
7. Formal agreements with service providers, must be specific to the job they do, f.ex. the formal contract with the pest controller did not include reference to Food Safety expectations... so make sure you check those
A black hole of a non-conformance. I've spent a lot of time trying to specify contracts with service providers, but depending on the areas of expertise of the auditor, there will always be a non-conformance in there somewhere. Does your laundry company have a nut free policy, for example.
8. Make sure you have specified in your product recall procedure that the certification body be notified within 3 days ( I had in a timely manner, an oversight on my behalf, a minor in the audit).
I think every meat company in Ireland got a non-conformance for this in 2008/09 after the dioxin pork crisis. As if we didn't have enough on our plates at the time...
9. Have calculators used in production areas included on your glass/brittle register
If an auditor wants to find a non-conformance from a glass and hard plastics register, they will always find one. Or two. Or three.
10. Try not to have a fly infestation 2 days before the audit, and if you do make sure to have a non-conformance written up for it with a plan of action in place.
Ouch!
11. Alert the people who check vehicle cleanliness to also check for glass/brittle risks
New one for me. Will I ask my warehouse staff to also check the oil and water levels also perhaps? Are your raw materials or finished products at risk of glass contamination or is this across the board? How I do remember many the summer's evening from my youth when we would throw glass bottles into trailers of vegetables on their way to the factory. Good, clean fun.
If I was a customer of your company, I would only raise concerns on two points, 3 and 10 (and I presume said infestation wasn't in the high care area). A good corrective action for 3 might consist of a board on the wall where all high care specific utensils and tools can be stored. Draw the outline of the utensils or tools on the board with a marker where they are supposed to hang. This will allow for a quick visual check by the high care supervisor to ensure everything is in the right place at the right time (very handy for unannounced audits). You could add a tick box on a record sheet and assign responsibility to a nominated member of staff to ensure fewer compromises of the space time continuum.
Speaking of which, in the song Year 3000 by Busted, there is a line where it states that "your great, great, great grandaughter, is looking fine". Taking an average lifetime of 100 years (this takes advances in medical science into consideration) in conjunction with a woman's ability to reproduce up to the age of 70, your great, great, great granddaughter would be 718 years old by the year 3000. Now, whilst I agree that the fact that people lived underwater would cut down on certain types of sun related aging, I would have to argue strongly that your great, great, great granddaughter would not, in fact, be "lookin' fine". To sum up, I do not believe that any member of Busted did indeed, travel to the year 3000. Hope this helps.
