Glass and plastic audit requirements for warehousing

We are SQF Level II certified distribution warehouse and in the middle of our version 7 rewrite. We don't process or make any food. We ship in prepackaged and palletized goods, store them and ship them out. I was just wondering what the requirement is for a glass, plastic and ceramic audit? Is this still a requirement for us to do?

Thanks

Do you have any damaged pallets or boxes of product? What do you do with it?

I would suggest at least making a glass and brittle plastic audit part of your GMP walk through to demonstrate that your facility tracks and repairs bad/broken lighting.

S

Apologies, double post!

S.

I would concur with Setanta. While you are not directly processing food, and thus are not working with exposed food product, you will want to have given due diligence to this subject. Auditors are quick to point out the "worst case scenario" to you during an audit, and many times that is to see if you have even considered it yourself - which you should. Questions like, "what happens if glass breaks overhead and the shards cover a pallet bound for shipment? what is your procedure for cleaning up the debris and ensure that all glass has been disposed of and the pallet is contaminant free?", then of course, demonstration of that through risk determination, audits, and breakage reports.

You might find this useful: http://www.ifsqn.com...MS Brochure.pdf

A risk based approach that makes sense for your operation. You aren't dealing with raw, exposed product but you are dealing with packaged food that is destined for shipment. What if a customer were to purchase that product so they could unpackage it and "rework" it into another final product? I recently blogged on this very subject. My personal opinion is that the act of registering every small piece of glass and then walking around with my clipboard is a waste of time. Controlling your program through establishing a robust plan (SOP), educating your staff, following through with breakage and personnel inspection procedures, etc. are were you gain true success. If my breakage procedure is severely lacking, I am setting myself up for failure and my risk goes up, thus increasing the frequency of the audit. Vice versa, if my control is such that the risk itself has been reduced, I can reduce the frequency of my audits (based on the verified level of control).

Funny story: during one audit, I was walking through the warehouse discussing the very matter of a glass recall that another manufacturer was having when the auditor and I both stopped after hearing glass crunch under our feet. An unprotected light had fallen to the floor below. The warehouse supervisor swore it had to be within minutes, because he had double checked the warehouse before we got there. Murphy's law in action!!

I agree. What is the likelihood of the light switch breaking and becoming on issue in your product?

We have a monthly glass and brittle plastic audit (we are a manufactruing facility) but it doesn't include light switches. We have our lighting fixtures covered, sure, and some gauges that are directly over product lines, but most of it is managed with daily Pre-Op checklists. We do not audit PVC pipes, again, think likelihood. The risk of a forklift rising too high and taking out a fixture is significantly greater than a pipe breaking. (hopefully in my continued experience--thinking of Murphy)

Doing a walk through, and having work orders in place to correct any issues seems to be a small amount of work with a larger pay-out.

We are SQF Level II certified distribution warehouse and in the middle of our version 7 rewrite. We don't process or make any food. We ship in prepackaged and palletized goods, store them and ship them out. I was just wondering what the requirement is for a glass, plastic and ceramic audit? Is this still a requirement for us to do?

Thanks

The requirements are clearly noted in the SQF Code Version 7 manual - example for module #11 .... 11.7.5 Control of Foreign Matter Contamination


Glenn Oster

http://www.GetGoc.com