I just started a new position with a company that is trying to get SQF certified in 2015. Having worked in the past for a company that acquired BRC certification while I was there, and then in dairy, where things are very regulated, I feel I have a pretty good idea of the depth and scope of SQF. My current company makes dairy free condiments. Nothing is pasteurized, however some of the batches of our products require heating or cooking for specified periods of time.
The company is also expanding and has brought in a lot of equipment in the past few weeks, including a new packing line that is CIP capable. Before this, they were doing a sort of modified COP- using one of the product tanks as a sort of COP tank.
My concern is this, at this point there are absolutely zero data recording devices set up with either the production system or the CIP system. There are thermometers, and they do have a PLC system, but nothing that tracks temperature over time, much less things like flow or concentration and provides some sort of chart or print out. I have never worked anywhere there wasn’t some sort of recording devices/software installed with this sort of equipment. Even the dairy I worked for, which was built in the 1960s and still has equipment that old, had chart recorders and an ancient (1980s-ish?) CIP recording system. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Is there a way to verify we are meeting our time/temperature standards for our production and CIP processes without recording devices, aside from having someone taking a temperature reading every minute? Or do our engineers need a wake-up call (as I feel they do)?