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ChocolatesMyGame

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Posted 19 November 2014 - 04:36 PM

Hi- anyone one out there in the US deal with receiving raw and/or blanched peanuts in burlap bags?  We keep having issues with the bags molding either shortly after receipt in our cooled storage or they are already moldy upon receipt.  The blanched do have a liner in the burlap bag but it is very thin and easily torn.  The raw peanuts do not have a liner so it is just the burlap bag.  We roast nuts at our facility.

 

Does anyone else have this issue and what have you done (in terms of with the supplier) and does anyone else get in peanuts in any other type of packaging?  Anyone have any suggestions on good suppliers?

 

Thanks!



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Posted 20 November 2014 - 05:27 AM

We get peanuts in lined cardboard boxes and /or bags that are like the bags for chips (maybe a packaging supplier on here knows the name - shiny silver on the inside, plasticy plain white on the outside).  But we do not roast our own, all of the peanuts we get are already processed.  As for suppliers...we use a large number of nut vendors (again for roasted), Georgia Nut Co is the best with documentation, COAs, etc, but I think they're only processed (?) and I've no idea what they're like for purchasing (agh, more gaps in my supplier approval program, no vendor score card data yet) .  We've also used/gotten various levels of documentation & customer service from ... American Almond (Here's what purchasing had to say when I asked for the docs:"Oh, I don't talk to anyone there, I just ordered it on the internet because R&D told me to.", they decided filling out the contact us form was too much trouble and got a different vendor) , Jimbo's Jumbos (had some docs and a really well designed, minimalist spec sheet I wanna mind thieve) , Setton International Farms (very good customer service, not too sure about their QA, they had a recall half a decade ago but I've never had any out of spec product from them, micro included)  and Nuts.com (a real company name that looks hilariously fake on a kosher cert, and were able to get us documentation), and those are just off the top of my head.   It's a fight to get purchasing to buy from one nut guy, and I have no idea why.  They all sell nuts, purchasing. Can you tell I've been thinking about this a lot? I'm willing to make a special almond exception for Blue Diamond (they R awesome), and I think we need "back up" vendors for all of our raw materials, but it's too much. 

 

We were getting macadamia nuts delivered to us in plastic trash bags designed as kitchen liners... We emailed the supplier to let them know that make shift packaging off the shelves of Wal Mart meant to hold trash was not acceptable for a food product.  Then the emails never actually sent because our outgoing filter blocks the words "white trash" .  So we called them , and had very little fight about switching to cardboard with liners.  I referenced some code about raw material packaging not posing a contamination risk (it's either SQF AIB or FSSC but I can't remember which)

 

I would lodge a complaint with the supplier  (with pictures) and not receive (reject the shipment) if it is moldy or if the packaging is damaged.  You can't use it, so don't pay for it.  Senior management will agree.  And document the crap out of it, so that when the auditor asks you if you reject stuff, you can be like "yep, look at all the stuff purchasing is peed at me for rejecting.  They told the company president I was going to 'bring the company down' if we only used approved vendors .  That's why they gave us luke warm coffee.  Apparently, and this was not covered in my HACCP training, we don't need robust PRP programs if they worked at or heard of another that site passed an audit by some combination of egregious auditor incompetence and blindfolding.  Don't you understand that if they can get away with it we can?!"  (Ed note:  While I often day dream about saying things like this to an auditor, I never do.  I probably will when I'm about to get fired {every job I have will end until the one that doesn't}, because I can't stop myself from living out saying stuff day dreams.)  

 

Unless mold is acceptable because roasting is your kill step?  Still, dude, alfatoxins.  Mold no es bueno.  You can test the moisture content during receiving and reject if it's out of specification.


Edited by magenta_majors, 20 November 2014 - 05:29 AM.

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CMHeywood

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Posted 20 November 2014 - 06:37 PM

 

 

If the peanuts are moldy you should be concerned.

 

Granted, the following is from a nongovernement website but it does explain the worst hazard that can occur:

 

Peanut is not a nut it's a legume, a very moldy one too. Peanuts contain what is called aflatoxin. Aflatoxin   is a proven carcinogen that causes liver and other cancers. It is a mycotoxin and is produced by Aspergillus type molds. It has been discovered that the most moldiest of peanuts were contaminated with aflatoxin by as much as 300 times more than government standards allow. Not surprisingly the highest reading was in the peanut butter products.



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Posted 20 November 2014 - 07:05 PM

We get peanuts in lined cardboard boxes and /or bags that are like the bags for chips (maybe a packaging supplier on here knows the name - shiny silver on the inside, plasticy plain white on the outside).  But we do not roast our own, all of the peanuts we get are already processed.  As for suppliers...we use a large number of nut vendors (again for roasted), Georgia Nut Co is the best with documentation, COAs, etc, but I think they're only processed (?) and I've no idea what they're like for purchasing (agh, more gaps in my supplier approval program, no vendor score card data yet) .  We've also used/gotten various levels of documentation & customer service from ... American Almond (Here's what purchasing had to say when I asked for the docs:"Oh, I don't talk to anyone there, I just ordered it on the internet because R&D told me to.", they decided filling out the contact us form was too much trouble and got a different vendor) , Jimbo's Jumbos (had some docs and a really well designed, minimalist spec sheet I wanna mind thieve) , Setton International Farms (very good customer service, not too sure about their QA, they had a recall half a decade ago but I've never had any out of spec product from them, micro included)  and Nuts.com (a real company name that looks hilariously fake on a kosher cert, and were able to get us documentation), and those are just off the top of my head.   It's a fight to get purchasing to buy from one nut guy, and I have no idea why.  They all sell nuts, purchasing. Can you tell I've been thinking about this a lot? I'm willing to make a special almond exception for Blue Diamond (they R awesome), and I think we need "back up" vendors for all of our raw materials, but it's too much. 

 

We were getting macadamia nuts delivered to us in plastic trash bags designed as kitchen liners... We emailed the supplier to let them know that make shift packaging off the shelves of Wal Mart meant to hold trash was not acceptable for a food product.  Then the emails never actually sent because our outgoing filter blocks the words "white trash" .  So we called them , and had very little fight about switching to cardboard with liners.  I referenced some code about raw material packaging not posing a contamination risk (it's either SQF AIB or FSSC but I can't remember which)

 

I would lodge a complaint with the supplier  (with pictures) and not receive (reject the shipment) if it is moldy or if the packaging is damaged.  You can't use it, so don't pay for it.  Senior management will agree.  And document the crap out of it, so that when the auditor asks you if you reject stuff, you can be like "yep, look at all the stuff purchasing is peed at me for rejecting.  They told the company president I was going to 'bring the company down' if we only used approved vendors .  That's why they gave us luke warm coffee.  Apparently, and this was not covered in my HACCP training, we don't need robust PRP programs if they worked at or heard of another that site passed an audit by some combination of egregious auditor incompetence and blindfolding.  Don't you understand that if they can get away with it we can?!"  (Ed note:  While I often day dream about saying things like this to an auditor, I never do.  I probably will when I'm about to get fired {every job I have will end until the one that doesn't}, because I can't stop myself from living out saying stuff day dreams.)  

 

Unless mold is acceptable because roasting is your kill step?  Still, dude, alfatoxins.  Mold no es bueno.  You can test the moisture content during receiving and reject if it's out of specification.

 

:roflmao:  :roflmao:  :rofl2:   :roflmao: ....laughing too hard......can't breathe...... :roflmao:   :rofl2:   :roflmao: still laughing.....don't ever leave us couldn't live without the rants.....Love the rants :rofl2: still laughing..... 


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Posted 20 November 2014 - 07:19 PM

We get peanuts in lined cardboard boxes and /or bags that are like the bags for chips (maybe a packaging supplier on here knows the name - shiny silver on the inside, plasticy plain white on the outside).  But we do not roast our own, all of the peanuts we get are already processed.  As for suppliers...we use a large number of nut vendors (again for roasted), Georgia Nut Co is the best with documentation, COAs, etc, but I think they're only processed (?) and I've no idea what they're like for purchasing (agh, more gaps in my supplier approval program, no vendor score card data yet) .  We've also used/gotten various levels of documentation & customer service from ... American Almond (Here's what purchasing had to say when I asked for the docs:"Oh, I don't talk to anyone there, I just ordered it on the internet because R&D told me to.", they decided filling out the contact us form was too much trouble and got a different vendor) , Jimbo's Jumbos (had some docs and a really well designed, minimalist spec sheet I wanna mind thieve) , Setton International Farms (very good customer service, not too sure about their QA, they had a recall half a decade ago but I've never had any out of spec product from them, micro included)  and Nuts.com (a real company name that looks hilariously fake on a kosher cert, and were able to get us documentation), and those are just off the top of my head.   It's a fight to get purchasing to buy from one nut guy, and I have no idea why.  They all sell nuts, purchasing. Can you tell I've been thinking about this a lot? I'm willing to make a special almond exception for Blue Diamond (they R awesome), and I think we need "back up" vendors for all of our raw materials, but it's too much. 

 

We were getting macadamia nuts delivered to us in plastic trash bags designed as kitchen liners... We emailed the supplier to let them know that make shift packaging off the shelves of Wal Mart meant to hold trash was not acceptable for a food product.  Then the emails never actually sent because our outgoing filter blocks the words "white trash" .  So we called them , and had very little fight about switching to cardboard with liners.  I referenced some code about raw material packaging not posing a contamination risk (it's either SQF AIB or FSSC but I can't remember which)

 

I would lodge a complaint with the supplier  (with pictures) and not receive (reject the shipment) if it is moldy or if the packaging is damaged.  You can't use it, so don't pay for it.  Senior management will agree.  And document the crap out of it, so that when the auditor asks you if you reject stuff, you can be like "yep, look at all the stuff purchasing is peed at me for rejecting.  They told the company president I was going to 'bring the company down' if we only used approved vendors .  That's why they gave us luke warm coffee.  Apparently, and this was not covered in my HACCP training, we don't need robust PRP programs if they worked at or heard of another that site passed an audit by some combination of egregious auditor incompetence and blindfolding.  Don't you understand that if they can get away with it we can?!"  (Ed note:  While I often day dream about saying things like this to an auditor, I never do.  I probably will when I'm about to get fired {every job I have will end until the one that doesn't}, because I can't stop myself from living out saying stuff day dreams.)  

 

Unless mold is acceptable because roasting is your kill step?  Still, dude, alfatoxins.  Mold no es bueno.  You can test the moisture content during receiving and reject if it's out of specification.

Edited by magenta_majors, Yesterday, 09:29 PM.

:blink: I can only imagine what was actually edited from this.



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Posted 20 November 2014 - 07:34 PM

:blink: I can only imagine what was actually edited from this.

 

Think we need an "adults only" section for this.....inquiring minds want to know.... :roflmao:  :rofl2:  :roflmao:  :rofl2:


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ChocolatesMyGame

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Posted 20 November 2014 - 08:39 PM

It's a fight to get purchasing to buy from one nut guy, and I have no idea why.  They all sell nuts, purchasing.

 

 

 

Unless mold is acceptable because roasting is your kill step?  Still, dude, alfatoxins.  Mold no es bueno.  You can test the moisture content during receiving and reject if it's out of specification

 

 

 

Yes, I have sarcastically asked our Purchasing guy "Well, don't all of our nut distributors sell the same nuts?"  That got me no where.  :glare:   And aflatoxins are exactly why I'm telling them mold is NOT acceptable as the toxin isn't killed or inactivated during roasting.  No one knew that before I was here, which is scary, but then again a lot of the people here have been here 20+ years and food safety is still a foreign language to them...

 

We do use several of the companies you named for other nuts and have received good quality product, but PEANUTS are a nightmare.  3 different suppliers and they all had moldy bags, ripped bags, wet bags, etc.  VERY CONCERNING!



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Posted 20 November 2014 - 09:20 PM

Moldy peanuts are a major issue for all the reasons that everyone stated above - aflatoxin, etc.  You might want to talk to your supplier about their storage and transport.  Are they storing the peanuts in cold storage and then shipping them ambient?  Are they tempering the peanuts before loading or taking other precautions to prevent condensation and moisture so that mold does not develop?  Just a few thoughts. 



ChocolatesMyGame

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Posted 20 November 2014 - 09:24 PM

Moldy peanuts are a major issue for all the reasons that everyone stated above - aflatoxin, etc.  You might want to talk to your supplier about their storage and transport.  Are they storing the peanuts in cold storage and then shipping them ambient?  Are they tempering the peanuts before loading or taking other precautions to prevent condensation and moisture so that mold does not develop?  Just a few thoughts. 

 

I did send a complaint to the distributor of the peanuts who said he will be contacting the supplier.  I also asked the storage/transportation question, but with this distributor they seem to think that corrective actions and follow up are not important.  I never get any out of him. Grr.



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Posted 20 November 2014 - 09:46 PM

They told the company president I was going to 'bring the company down' if we only used approved vendors . 

 

Give them examples of the companies that are not out of business due to a food safety issue.  There's lots of them. 


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