3rd Party Frozen Ingredient Storage

Hello All,

I have a question regarding storage of a frozen ingredient at an external (3rd party) freezer. I am thinking I can cover this with SQF 2.3.3 Contact Service Providers and a documented risk analysis. I am unsure if I need to update/modify my HACCP and Receiving programs to reflect a potential secondary storage location for the frozen ingredient. Have any of you run in to similar situations and/or how did you effectively document.

A little about the frozen product: It is a pasteurized frozen egg product, due to market we are looking to purchase inventory for the entire year. The supplier has been regularly used by us and meets all of our specifications, audits, approval etc. We just don't have the freezer space for the large quantity.

In addition to having the risk assessment, I am putting together an internal audit of the frozen storage company and could use some insight as to recommend items to cover. I have the generic lists such as: Certification(s), last audits (federal etc), GMP program, Pest Control Program, Temperature Control / Calibration validation/verification. Any help would be appreciated.

Regards,

Cory

I think you are on the right track.  We have some of our product at a 3rd Party Frozen Storage facility. We get an annual  copy of their 3rd party GFSI audit, and we include them in our Mock Recalls so we can prove they are handling our product FIFO

Thanks for the info, I've seen multiple topics on the storage of finished products at 3rd party DC / Freezer storage, but I was not sure if ingredients need to be handled differently. I guess I will just have to have it well documented and audited to show that we believe the food safety risk minimal.

Take a look a the alternative storage and overflow details in SQF Standards 7.2 as well.