2 replies to this topic

[drakmilling]

Hi everyone ,

 

We are very new at the whole haccp and fsms thing.

 

I am looking for some advice as to traceability of our maize meal. Our operation works as follows. We have 24 members (farmers) who each have to supply a set amount of Wmaize a year according to their share. The maize is delivered to the local Co- op and all stored in two silo's where we then draw from as we mill. Thus I cannot determine who's maize it is once in the silo. And we do not do the grading of the raw product the Co Op does.  I only have the delivery doc. with grading etc. for each load delivered , but everything goes into the two silos. Where does our traceability chain end then? At storage?

 

Secondly:

 

Our product is then packed and distributed to One Group of Stores within our province. We issue a dn and invoice per store, but there is 32 tons per load i.e 32 pallets which could be devided between three stores. We don't have batch numbers on each pallet as each bag is printed with the prod date, exp date and shift number. The pallets are wrapped thus there might be two batches of product on one pallet if pallet was only half filled at shift change over. How do I link the pallets to the invoice and store?

 

Regards

[JustinD]

Hi Drak,

 

In response to the first question traceability in bulk storage is always limited. You will at best be able to trace back to the silo the grain was pooled in. Is the Co-op that handles the storage and grading a seperate company? If so the requirement for tracing the product will only extend as far as the Co-op. Tracing the grain back further will be problematic because you don't have any control over it.

 

For the second question, the way I understand your question is that you are using the shift that produced the product as a batch number. Without some form of marking on the pallet how do you identify what the product is? When it was made? How long it has been sitting there? An auditor will want to see product clearly labelled and identified throughout the process. Marking the pallets would not create much extra work and could make traceability easier for you. The marked pallets can be recorded as they are loaded and the record can be used when creating the invoice to detail the batches that were sent. Do you store the finished product for long?If so you will definitely want to identify the product. If it is being dispatched as soon as it is manufactured and packaged then you can possibly use production records to achieve the same result.

 

Start with a very simple system and get it to work before you try and complicate it too much. For traceability you just need to ask where did it come from? What happens to it here? Where did it go?

 

I hope that made some sense.

 

Justin.  

[drakmilling]

Hi Justin 

 

Thanks this helps a lot. We work on a demand basis and have a storage system in place for stock rotation. But in general no stock stands longer than 2 weeks. I have made lables for the outside of the pallets with the same info on as what's printed on the bag. Will use this for now. Thanks a mill.