Retention Samples Requirement

Hi, I hope somebody can help with formulating requirements for retention samples for food products for:
- end products sold to customer
- ingredients
- packaging materials

I do not seem to be able to find clear requirements (not any) in FSSC (or other GFSI standards)
What are the legal requirements in key countries around the world (based on EFSA, FDA, etc).
Do you get customer requirements (if business to business) for your products for retention samples

If you have retention policy, how big should the retention sample (for each batch) be:
Enough to do all analysis once
Enough to do all analysis twice (in case of dispute give sample to independant lab)

(For documentation the situation is much clearer).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Anybody?

Neither the USDA or FDA requires sample retention. In my experience, this is mostly customer driven and company driven in terms of protecting your brand. SQF mentions sample retention, but does not require it.

My suggestions:

Incoming products:
Raw materials (ingredients): test upon receipt for various chemical and sensory analysis
-Retain sample should be large enough to run the same type of tests at the end of stated shelf life, double if you plan on running micro tests
The problem with this is, if you have something that is in a large container and meant to be opened and dispensed as needed: place into a whirl-pak bag for storage. If you get 40 lb blocks of cheese, this may present a problem for retention, because you've just contaminated your ingredient and can no longer claim any supplier wrong-doing.

Packaging materials - one of each would be sufficient, if you have the storage space.

End Products:
at a minimum: 1 retail package to hold out to the stated shelf life for analysis, 2 if you plan on doing micro.

Hi, I hope somebody can help with formulating requirements for retention samples for food products for:
- end products sold to customer
- ingredients
- packaging materials

I do not seem to be able to find clear requirements (not any) in FSSC (or other GFSI standards)
What are the legal requirements in key countries around the world (based on EFSA, FDA, etc).
Do you get customer requirements (if business to business) for your products for retention samples

If you have retention policy, how big should the retention sample (for each batch) be:
Enough to do all analysis once
Enough to do all analysis twice (in case of dispute give sample to independant lab)

(For documentation the situation is much clearer).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Any retention policy needs to be workable, for instance with long life dairy products made from raw milk it is not practical to retain raw milk samples to the the end of finished product life.

It would be useful to get an idea of your finished products and typical ingredients.

Regards,

Tony