Customer complaint about a piece of glass that was found in Quinoa

Hi All,

I am new to the Ready-meal food industry and have received a customer complaint about a piece of glass that was found in Quinoa that we have delivered.

To be fair, our quinoa was not the final product and they added 4 other ingredients to make the meal but I want to ensure that our side is clean and therefore thought of implementing a sieving procedure as a means of removing foreign bodies.

Any suggestions about a procedure and a sieve that would get the job done would be warmly received.

A little more info would be helpful:

- What is the size of the quinoa seeds?

- What was the size of the glass piece found?

- How is the quinoa packaged (vertical form fill from a hopper?): a Flow diagram would help out here.

Have you considered having the glass analysed? I'd be wary of making wholesale changes of the sort you propose unless you felt the risk posed by not doing was too great for comfort. These days, analysis of FBs can determine the likely source or at least rule out the likelihood of the FB having originated in your production line.

Dear walterfleitmann,

Any response to the questions posed in post #2 ?

Offhand, my first reaction would be to try and find the probable source of the glass. Urgently. It may well not be an isolated event.

Rgds / Charles.C