SQF Application
Hello everyone, My name is Jay. I work for a wholesales and distribution company that processes and packages their own herbs, spices, and essential oils. I am the lead quality control personnel for this company and will be taking the responsibilities as SQF practitioner. I have haccp trainning and have just recently enrolled in the online course. This will be our first SQF audit. I am looking over the sqf application with the production manager and am in need of a little help/advice. We are having difficulty listing the range of products for certification for the application. We're not sure exactly how to list the products and what kind of details they are asking for. The company carries over 800 different products. Should we list each of the product lines rather than each individual product? or will this come back to bite us later? Our current HACCP plan has our products divided by product line.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Best regards,
Jay
Dear nu2sqf,
Is it possible for you to post one or two specific examples to illustrate the nature of yr categorisation difficulties. i don't really understand the meaning of "divided by product line", ie divided how ? :smile:
IMEX (not SQF) the certification depends somewhat on yr own priorities / requirements, eg whether certain specific products / groupings need to be individually highlighted or not with regard to possible customer aspects. For example, in seafood, some processors work with a range of shrimp species but are (generically) certified for "shrimp". Other processors might wish to be more individually detailed.
The choice may also relate to the requirements in a subsequent auditorial event.
Rgds / Charles.C
I didn't understand what they wanted us to list for the range of product. From your discription, it sounds like I can group the products into product line (catagory), below is an example of how I would list the products. Can you take a look and let me know if it looks right? TIA.
RANGE OF PRODUCTS FOR CERTIFICATION
Products
Details
SQF FSC
Risk Level
Dry Spices
Non-Allergen Spices, Cut, Powder
19
Low
Dry Herbs
Non-Allergen Herbs, Loose leaf, Cut, Powder
19
Low
Dry Spices
Allergen Spices, Cut, Powder
19
High
Dry Herbs
Allergen Herbs, Loose Leaf, Cut, Powder
19
High
Dry Teas
Loose leaf, Cut, Powder
19
Low
Essential Oils
Aromatic Oils
21
Low
Jay - you do it by categories and based a cursory glance of your indicated food sector categories - you need to take a closer look at the SQF FSC list as you need some more.
Dear nu2sqf,
As you discovered, it is not possible to coherently paste tables into posts. i hv rearranged for yr (and other interested posters) benefit -
product examples.xls 14KB 28 downloads
After a quick look para 1.2 and the subtleties of inter-related "categories" in Appendix1 of the SQF code, i can appreciate what GOC may be hinting at. The SQF system approach is, predictably, of their own design.
Frankly, my first route for info. would hv been to consult a potential (future) SQF auditor who I'm confident would advise on this aspect for free (business opportunity / routine expertise).
Nonetheless there are a lot of SQF users here who must have faced similar dilemmas. Hopefully will include some users of related products. I anticipate that further queries may be coming. :smile:
Rgds / Charles.C
GOC - thanks for pointing that out. Is what I listed appropriate as far as listing the products and details?
Charles - Thanks, I found out after posting, and wasn't able to edit my post.
If someone could post an example list, I'd really appreciate it! :)
Best Regards,
Jay