Losing Track...
Hi everyone!
I am starting to lose my head, I think :helpplease:, and would appreciate a sanity check.
As a refresher, I just started at a company that makes gluten free protein bars and bites and I am the project manager in charge of driving the completion of our HACCP program with an additional eye toward SQF Level 2 certification. I have been into so many different sources of information, I'm starting to go cross-eyed and get a little overwhelmed. Which is exactly what I was hired to help people avoid!
Right now, we are writing our SOPs which cover everything from receiving, inspection and storage of raw material to the production and packaging processes as well as shipment of finished goods, and equipment and facilities maintenance.
We also have a HACCP Plan which includes an overview, process flow diagram, product descriptions, hazard analyses of ingredients and process and then a list of PRPs.
I think where I'm getting lost is that my understanding is that PRPs are, in fact, the documented SOPs...right? And what about SSOPs? We have sanitation included in our SOPs so do we need a separate and distinct SSOP section of documents? And aren't GMPs our SOPs? In other words, we have concluded that our standard operating procedures are, indeed, the best practices and therefore are the good manufacturing process? (I'm not addressing continual improvement in this question as I'm considering it an inherent part of the entire process/program.)
I know these are a ton of questions but any type of slap upside the head :doh: to get my thinking straight would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!!!
~Emily~
Hi Emily Leonard,
I'm not in USA but I have deduced a lot of the answers to yr query involve US Semantics as employed by organisations like USFDA, FSIS. Yr confusion is partly due to the variety of overlapping publications on this topic and is not at all unusual IMEX. :smile:
I suggest you peruse the attachment in post below which seemed quite good to me in threading the maze -
http://www.ifsqn.com...ard/#entry89318
One caveat is that the document is targetted to meat industry but my own area (seafood) is based on USFDA logics and this document still seemed more or less applicable.
Hi Emily Leonard,
I'm not in USA but I have deduced a lot of the answers to yr query involve US Semantics as employed by organisations like USFDA, FSIS. Yr confusion is partly due to the variety of overlapping publications on this topic and is not at all unusual IMEX. :smile:
I suggest you peruse the attachment in post below which seemed quite good to me in threading the maze -
http://www.ifsqn.com...ard/#entry89318
One caveat is that the document is targetted to meat industry but my own area (seafood) is based on USFDA logics and this document still seemed more or less applicable.
Hi Charles C,
Thank you very much for your time and for the post to review. Both the post and the attachment have great information that I will be re-visiting many times, I am sure.
Although I've worked with other quality standards such as ISO, there is, much terminology I am unfamiliar with. I think my main source of confusion is how much things seem to overlap. With ISO, we were able to refer to another document rather than repeating the same information (e.g. "refer to SOP 7.02, Calibrating Raw Material Scale"). I'm hoping that is acceptable in the food industry as well. If not, I guess I'll be doing a lot of copying and pasting! :biggrin:
Again, thank you for your help, Charles C. I welcome any other information/suggestions that anyone else may want to contribute to keep my mind clear.
~Emily~
Hi,
What might help is creating "Policies" for each of your Pre-Requisite programs.
Look to SQF 7.2 section 2.4.2.2 which will refer you to the relevant modules of the code, Module 11 in my case.
In module 11 are your GMP's or also called Pre-Requisite programs..
I created a Policy document for these that are then audited at a regular schedule. We also have SOP's for tasks with the required training documentation and then SSOP's for the sanitation program.
I hope this helps,
herb
Hi,
What might help is creating "Policies" for each of your Pre-Requisite programs.
Look to SQF 7.2 section 2.4.2.2 which will refer you to the relevant modules of the code, Module 11 in my case.
In module 11 are your GMP's or also called Pre-Requisite programs..
I created a Policy document for these that are then audited at a regular schedule. We also have SOP's for tasks with the required training documentation and then SSOP's for the sanitation program.
I hope this helps,
herb
Thank you, Herb.
If I understand correctly, you keep ALL of your sanitation SOPs completely separate in their own SSOP category? We have SSOPs but they are lumped in with our other SOPs to create one comprehensive SOP list. Do you know of any issues that may create for us down the road with SQF?
Thank you,
~Emily~