Dear All,
I would like to hear your thoughts and experiences on TACCP.
I recently started work for a small family company who import, process and pack liquids (wines, spirits, beers, oils, vinegars), meats and cheeses.
We do not produce direct for retail and are therefore FSSC not BRC accredited. Our customers however are BRC accredited and do work directly for retailers so they therefore have customer demands regarding the new BRC V7 standard, particularly TACCP and the new section 5.4. This was identified and included as part of my new role in the company and I have completed a TACCP risk assessment.
Anyway... The issue I am having is related to the lack of commercial realism involved in TACCP. We were challenged to go back to source on an item of small volume (the product is extra virgin olive oil, which is higher risk) from a small continental supplier. Due to the low volumes involved the supplier was not identified as being high risk on the TACCP risk assessment.
Previously the requirements have been to show country of origin on the specification to prove provenance and to risk assess your suppliers through supplier approval process, they were small volume so did not get highlighted as being high risk. The supplier has failed to produce the required traceability back to the source and this has caused massive uproar with our customer. .
This small supplier is now being asked by our customer to conform to a new level of expectation and agree to be audited against it. We must now test ever batch that comes into us (at £300 per go) as the customer requires "confidence" in the product after an unannounced audit last week to our site (£2K per go) and all off the back of the fact that the supplier could not trace the product to source.
This all adds cost to the business and increases the risk of economic motivated adulteration. Is this not counterproductive to what we are all trying to achieve?
Now I understand the concept that the TACCP is a risk assessment that identifies the highest risk products and that volume is an parameter that should be taken into account, however this has not stopped our customer demanding that we test every batch of incoming goods, audit the site and ask them to provide traceability on this product back to source... In this case the olive. All this for less than 20 ltrs per week!
Not a rant honest, just interested if anyone else sees this as being counterproductive if taken outside of the commercial realism?
Any suggestions on how to manage my customers expectation would also be appreciated (I have tried to explain this to them but they insist that it must be done so that they can regain confidence in the product they are taking)?
Am I wrong and is TACCP not liked to commercial realism? Is it a fundamental and absolute requirement like food safety?
Your thoughts please ladies and gents :)
Regards
Duke