Guidance on conducting a Raw Material Vulnerability Assessment

Hi,

I am hoping for someadvice/guidence on how to go about the new raw material vulnerability assessment as we have over 1200 raw materials that need to be reviewed.

Has anyone already set up their system and could assist?

Thanks

C

:Welcome: to IFSQN!

Wow 1200 raw materials?  That's a lot of materials to try to assess.  How many different companies do you get those ingredients from?

There are a lot of things you can look at.  A pretty quick and easy way to get the information to perform your risk analysis a typical way to do it is to send out a questionnaire asking the most pertinent information.  Things that are typically asked is if the company has a Codex based HACCP plan.  If they have a process risk analysis.  If they are certified by a GFSI standard.  If they have established GMPs and PRPs.

All of the basics of food safety should be asked.  This gives you a broad view on if their system is safe.  Obviously it's not bulletproof but what is in food?

Then you can make a grading system based on if they filled out your questionnaire, if they have submitted all of the documentation you ask from them (this could be lot code information, shelf life, storage, specification sheets, etc.), if you have ever had a food safety issue with their product in the past (maybe you found metal in an ingredient or a foreign contaminant), how responsive they are when you have a question or issue with their product, etc.

Put all of the information together in a spreadsheet and then complete the grading.  

I was lookign to see if I had an example to show you of one I've used but apparently I don't have it anymore.  

Ah, I only give out the questionnaire if the other company doesn't have a GFSI audit (like a fool, I assume that if they passed an audit they have the basics down).  Ideally if I found something in their questionnaire that caused increase in risk, we would ask them to change their policy or not use them as a vendor. Frustratingly, purchasing disagrees, so I have used info from those to classify vendors as high risk (no hot water for hand washing, etc) and sometimes raw materials (no metal detector, etc).  I generally dislike using these because 1) I'm not qualified to audit their process 2) it's a bunch of work for me to review and 3) no physical audit means they can write down anything.   But here's a copy of the one I use attached.

For risk analysis of raw materials, I use anything odd in the product specification (from a field, may contain other objects = high risk for foreign objects, control by sieve). Or similar product recalls (peanut butter = high risk for salmonella, etc). Most of my raw materials are low risk, we have approx. 500 .

Hi Cabbie

are you looking to do a VACCP (/TACCP) study or just a risk analysis of your raw ingredients?

Caz x

Hi Cabbie

 

are you looking to do a VACCP (/TACCP) study or just a risk analysis of your raw ingredients?

 

Caz x

Oh duh :doh: , I didn't even look at it from a food defense / VACCP standpoint

And when I read the title of the thread, I thought, "Gee, Caz knows about VACCP" XD

Hi,

to overcome such problems I have done my VACCP (and my Food Fraud assessment) introducing risk classes where informations on raw materials, supplier and processes (supplier's and our own) went in.

e.g. if you have heat treatment steps you have not to look on micros (but still on toxins)

e.g. if you have cristallization steps you have a good purification

e.g. if you have extraction ....

e.g. if you have a good supplier relationsship for many years

e.g. if you have sealed transportation/boxes etc

In risk assessment we are using always such kind of classification (4 risk classes, where 4 is the highest risk)

- classification of raw materials and final products for microbial risks

- classification of suppliers and raw materials for GMO contamination "risk" (we are non-GMO)

- classification of suppliers and raw materials for food fraud risks

etc.

Combining all these risk assessments you get a good overview and it is easier to select the topics to work on (risk based measures).

Rgds

moskito

Hi All,

Many thanks for the advice and help and I will let you know how I get on and perhaps get you yo review before the audit, to make sure that I am along the right line. :rofl2: