Clause 4.5.1 - Chemical quality of water?

BRC Issue 7, clause 4.5.1 states that "the microbiological and chemical quality of water shall be analyzed at least annually".  What tests should we use for chemical testing?  Someone had recommended chlorine but to have it tested by a 3rd party we would have to have the sample to the lab within 15 minutes.  Please recommend another test for us that would be affordable and would make sense!  We are a further processor of beef and poultry products. No slaughter.  Thank you!

Hello tanward,

   Usually your city does the chemical testing. Most auditors are ok with this report. I searched Oklahoma and this is what I found: http://www.okc.gov/CCR_2014.pdf

However it is city specific or utility service specific. Hope this helps. Just a note, it takes a long time for the Quality report to be published sometimes 9 months into the following year.

It is depend n your legal requirements. In EU also in Turkey there are regulations about water quality and safety parameters. You can use EU requirements as a reference. Full name of the regulation is "Council Directive 98/83/EC of 3 November 1998 on the quality of water intended for human consumption". You can find it from net. 

Dear TANWARD -

     You should be able to obtain the yearly report for your municiple water system like RG# did for OKC. EPA requires a consolidated report for the previous year issued by the following July. Typically it includes micro and a mix of organics & heavy metals. Internally, you can pull a sample and send to a local water testing lab to spot check some of the same chemicals - be careful, you can run up the cost pretty quickly! This will demonstrate that your plumbing is not adversly affecting the incoming water.

     You can do a Risk Assessment for not testing for chlorine - the likelihood of high concentration in most US supplies is nil.

KTD

We obtain copies of the city water report that shows micro and chemical - however, it was my understanding that BRC requires facilities to perform their own testing.  We already do separate water potability testing for micro, but I wasn't sure how to address the chemical.  Is anyone else doing chemical testing on water?

In the past working under BRC we provided a print out from the municipal water source who did the testing for chemicals. We did test for biological issues, but the annual report from the city was enough to show the chemical testing. 

City water plants do a whole battery of chemical tests and it would be redundant (and expensive!) to also test at the plant level.

No we use the municipal report for chemical analysis and this has passed muster for the last 5 years, and it is checked every time. The amount of chemical testing you could do on water is endless and costly... we do micro quarterly and just get an annual report on the chemical end.

Hi Tanward

We use the MIG part 2 for water testing requirements.

Meat Information Guidelines, its focus is slaughter and primary process but is a good guide for meat processing and similar products.

It sets out testing parameters and what constitutes a failure

In keeping with simplifying official documents the original MIG 1 & 2 have been redrafted and we know have MIG 1 - 20

(not totally sure that civil servants actually understand simplify)

http://www.food.gov....uidehygienemeat

relying on local authority testing certainly works in some cases, but not always and often depends on what you use water.

Since we use water in primary processing we are expected to to micro tests monthly

rdgs

I agree with Trubertq, I have always used the results published by the water supplier. The only time this has been different is when we have used borehole water. You are the expected to test the water. If you are using borehole water (or your own well) the retailors usually have a criteria of tests that you need to carry out such as cryptosporidium. In fact, regardless of your supply, Tesco expect you to test Towns Mains water for cryptosporidium, and to carry out an annual inspection & cleaning of any storage tank.

I have always done an annual testing of my water supply in addition to the municipal supplier's annual report.  I have the water tested for micro (coiforms, APC, yeast/mold) as well as chemical analysis (TOC and total chlorine). 

You can purchase some tablets that contain 10 mg of active sodium thiosulfate to neutralize chlorine at the time of sample collection.  Add a tablet to your sample and overnight the sample to the lab.

Just as a side-comment, probably OT here, IMEX, if you export to EC from a 3rd world location, frequent internal micro. results  will be expected.

Plus annual detailed BC data commensurate with the EC's own encyclopedic water specifications.

Weused to get the city water tests and they were always accepted until about 4 years ago, about the time we went to BRC.  They said the testing needed to be from water samples at our plant not the city, as you know not what is in the pipes between them and us.  Further, we send our water samples out for testing and require them to arrive at the testing facility in 8 hours since the site is 3 hours away we get them there on time.  Not sure where the 15 minute time limit comes from. The testing offsite is for the full range including metals, inorganics, color, turbidity etc etc.