Jump to content

  • Quick Navigation
Photo

Optical sorting a CCP? (seeds)

Share this

Best Answer , 17 May 2016 - 01:13 PM

Hi Dongilles,

 

If my memory of 2mm metal is correct, you may need to show that yr optical sorter will remove, say, a 2mm ball bearing from a typical flow (or flows).

For glass I have no experience of X-ray validation, maybe a similar sized fragment ?.

 

Regarding  CCP/PRP/others  this can get complicated/subjective. TBH I was thinking of metal detectors rather than Opt.Sorter.

 

For example - 

 

http://www.ifsqn.com...-and-not-a-ccp/

 

http://www.ifsqn.com...ivity-or-a-ccp/

(the longest [post-wise] thread on the forum afaik)

 

OPRP is yet another candidate.


  • You cannot start a new topic
  • Please log in to reply
4 replies to this topic
- - - - -

Gilles

    Grade - MIFSQN

  • IFSQN Member
  • 82 posts
  • 11 thanks
1
Neutral

  • Earth
    Earth
  • Gender:Male

Posted 17 May 2016 - 08:22 AM

Hello,

 

I have a question that I hope you can help me out with. We have a new optical sorter and we don't know if this needs to be a CCP or not.

 

Here some information about our company

 

Industry: We are a packer of seeds for (mostly) the bakery industry.

CCP's: Currently we have our metal detector and x-ray (for small pieces of stone and glass etc.) as CCP's

Processflow: Receiving product --> Cleaning product  (with sives, wind and magnets) --> Optical sorting (here is our new optical sorter) --> X-ray sorting --> Packing (incl metal detection) --> Palletizing --> Transport

 

The above mentioned processflow is the most steps our product can get subjected to. But depending on the quality of the received product and specification some steps can be skipped. As an example some products only go trought the xray and metal detection, some need to be sorted extra so the will go over the optical sorter then trough the x-ray and then trough the optical sorter again before packing.

 

The new optical sorter is alot better then the x-ray so when products go over optical sorter and then the xray, nothing is found. This is why when we use the optical sorter the x-ray is skipped. The problem is when we skip the x-ray, will skip a CCP and the optical sorter becomes our last measure to reduce the risk of glass and stones and we can not set critical limits to the optical sorter and check these like we can with the x-ray and metaldetector. 

 

Could someone here help me with this problem?

 

Thanks in advance.



Charles.C

    Grade - FIFSQN

  • IFSQN Moderator
  • 20,542 posts
  • 5662 thanks
1,544
Excellent

  • Earth
    Earth
  • Gender:Male
  • Interests:SF
    TV
    Movies

Posted 17 May 2016 - 08:36 AM

Hello,

 

I have a question that I hope you can help me out with. We have a new optical sorter and we don't know if this needs to be a CCP or not.

 

Here some information about our company

 

Industry: We are a packer of seeds for (mostly) the bakery industry.

CCP's: Currently we have our metal detector and x-ray (for small pieces of stone and glass etc.) as CCP's

Processflow: Receiving product --> Cleaning product  (with sives, wind and magnets) --> Optical sorting (here is our new optical sorter) --> X-ray sorting --> Packing (incl metal detection) --> Palletizing --> Transport

 

The above mentioned processflow is the most steps our product can get subjected to. But depending on the quality of the received product and specification some steps can be skipped. As an example some products only go trought the xray and metal detection, some need to be sorted extra so the will go over the optical sorter then trough the x-ray and then trough the optical sorter again before packing.

 

The new optical sorter is alot better then the x-ray so when products go over optical sorter and then the xray, nothing is found. This is why when we use the optical sorter the x-ray is skipped. The problem is when we skip the x-ray, will skip a CCP and the optical sorter becomes our last measure to reduce the risk of glass and stones and we can not set critical limits to the optical sorter and check these like we can with the x-ray and metaldetector. 

 

Could someone here help me with this problem?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi Dongilles,

 

You need to do a risk assessment, eg -

 

(1) Is there a significant hazard at the optical sorter step ?

(2) If yes, can you validate that the sorter "eliminates" the hazard or reduces it to an acceptable level ?

 

If the answers are YY, the Codex decision tree will support yr designating it as a CCP. (the critical limits may be based on  "best practice" data from a manufacturer since there must surely be some kind of specification as to the efficiency/capability of removal of certain particle sizes ?)

 

Presumably if the answer to (2) is No, it is not a CCP and if the answer to (1) is yes, you need to re-design the flow, eg use MD/X-Ray.

 

Some users may set it as a PRP or other entities. This choice depends on yr own particular flavour of haccp methodology.

 

PS - from memory, at yr location, metallic contaminants >2mm are considered a significant hazard


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


Gilles

    Grade - MIFSQN

  • IFSQN Member
  • 82 posts
  • 11 thanks
1
Neutral

  • Earth
    Earth
  • Gender:Male

Posted 17 May 2016 - 10:36 AM

Hi Dongilles,

 

You need to do a risk assessment, eg -

 

(1) Is there a significant hazard at the optical sorter step ?

(2) If yes, can you validate that the sorter "eliminates" the hazard or reduces it to an acceptable level ?

 

If the answers are YY, the Codex decision tree will support yr designating it as a CCP. (the critical limits may be based on  "best practice" data from a manufacturer since there must surely be some kind of specification as to the efficiency/capability of removal of certain particle sizes ?)

 

Presumably if the answer to (2) is No, it is not a CCP and if the answer to (1) is yes, you need to re-design the flow, eg use MD/X-Ray.

 

Some users may set it as a PRP or other entities. This choice depends on yr own particular flavour of haccp methodology.

 

PS - from memory, at yr location, metallic contaminants >2mm are considered a significant hazard

 

Hello Charles,

 

Thanks for the fast reply!

 

We have done a risk assessment:

1) Is there a significant hazard at the optical sorter step?

                    Yes there is: The product come from the field and can be contaminated with small pieces of glass, stone, metal (covered by the metal detector) plant material (no food safety risk)

2) can you validate that the sorter "eliminates" the hazard or reduces it to an acceptable level?

                     We now see that when we used the optical sorter (almost) nothing is found by the x-ray so we can conclude that the optical sorter reduces the hazard to an acceptable level (99.9 % purity)

 

So this indeed means that we need to make a CCP and depending on the product/quality it will go through the x-ray or optical sorter.

But then the critical limits will be a problem, because depending on the product the settings are different.

There is big difference between sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds in size and colour, so if we need to test if the object will be shot out, there need to be different objects for all programms

 

 

How would other users set it as a PRP? There is a risk for the consumer so you will always need to check if its a CCP or not.



Charles.C

    Grade - FIFSQN

  • IFSQN Moderator
  • 20,542 posts
  • 5662 thanks
1,544
Excellent

  • Earth
    Earth
  • Gender:Male
  • Interests:SF
    TV
    Movies

Posted 17 May 2016 - 01:13 PM   Best Answer

Hi Dongilles,

 

If my memory of 2mm metal is correct, you may need to show that yr optical sorter will remove, say, a 2mm ball bearing from a typical flow (or flows).

For glass I have no experience of X-ray validation, maybe a similar sized fragment ?.

 

Regarding  CCP/PRP/others  this can get complicated/subjective. TBH I was thinking of metal detectors rather than Opt.Sorter.

 

For example - 

 

http://www.ifsqn.com...-and-not-a-ccp/

 

http://www.ifsqn.com...ivity-or-a-ccp/

(the longest [post-wise] thread on the forum afaik)

 

OPRP is yet another candidate.


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


Gilles

    Grade - MIFSQN

  • IFSQN Member
  • 82 posts
  • 11 thanks
1
Neutral

  • Earth
    Earth
  • Gender:Male

Posted 18 May 2016 - 07:01 AM

Thank you for your help! I know now what to do  :spoton:





Share this

0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users