Product use-by-date different to use-by-date on outer carton packaging
Hi everyone,
Whilst down in production today, I realised that the packaging workers accidently packed products with a different use-by-date to the use-by-date that was imprinted on the outer carton packaging.
I am unsure if this was a 'one-off' accident or whether it had been on-going :unsure:
I've opened a couple of other random boxes and they were all okay..however my concern is whether this could bring about a 'product withdrawal' or a 'product recall' if the big supermarket retailers are to discover this.
Any past experiences? or advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated! Thank You in advance.
The date coding shouldn't cause a recall, however, it may cause some bigger issues trying to trace the product if there is a recall for the product since the correct date was not applied to the package. Also, it looks poor on your quality control when there are 2 dates applied to the packaging.
It may be a good idea to perform an internal audit to see what the policy should be vs what is being practiced on the production floor.
Id say it could result in a product withdrawal. And I reckon you could end up with a retailer visit very quickly afterwards.
It would demonstrates that you have lost control; and they will want to be comfortable that it is an isolated incidence, and what corrective actions you have put into place, as well as investigating the root cause.
Goes without saying what the cost implications may be.
I would take it very seriously and react accordingly.
Caz
I agree with Caz. I think you may need to investigate how this happened, do some retraining (documented by sign offs) and make changes to prevent anything similar from reoccuring.
Setanta
Dear kedelai,
In the inspection business, it is what is known as an "easy rejection"
Rgds / Charles.C
Thanks everyone for your input!
I am planning to hold an urgent HACCP management meeting to discuss the severity of this issue and re-train the workers ASAP. I'll have to implement more frequent monitoring of the CCP and conduct random spot checks on the cartons..
I'm just hoping that it was a 'once off' incident...
In our business this is not allowed. If the issue were found during our routine checks the product is held back to the last good check. Fortunately for us we do code checks every half hour to ensure that coding is correct both primary and secondary packaging. We have had customer complaints where the issue was a one off when a coder failed to change at midnight. The glitches were fixed and the customer satisfied that the product was still safe for consumption.
This would be a concern for traceability and not food safety of the mislabelled products. If a recall was necessary for another reason how could you be confident you were recalling the correct dates?
We also conduct routine label checks to make sure that the dates printed are the same. If there is an issue we hold the production in question and re-evaluate every case.
An easy way to fix this and to prevent it from happening is to have a packaging operator, or if you have a packaging supervisor that is better, during a pre-startup check observe all date coders and have some sort of inspection sheet where that person indicates either a check mark that they are the same, or my favorite, have them write the actual code as it shows on both a printed carton and the product. We instituted this at the yogurt plant I worked at because we had 2 coders as well.
An easy way to fix this and to prevent it from happening is to have a packaging operator, or if you have a packaging supervisor that is better, during a pre-startup check observe all date coders and have some sort of inspection sheet where that person indicates either a check mark that they are the same, or my favorite, have them write the actual code as it shows on both a printed carton and the product. We instituted this at the yogurt plant I worked at because we had 2 coders as well.
Dear Mr Inc.
Sadly, will remain IMEX a validation of Sod's law. (Subsequently [US] re-invented to a Captain Murphy). :smile:
http://www.murphys-l...urphy-true.html
Rgds / Charles.C