Adding packaging manufacture to food process
Good Morning,
The company I work for is making plans to blow mold their own bottles for use as packaging during food product manufacture. The idea is to add the blow molding step to the current process flow.
We are currently level 2 certified for module 21 and 19. Will change management records, update of the HACCP plan be adequate for SQF recertification or do we have to add category 27?
I have tried researching on this but I cannot seem to find any information on this.
TGM
Sorry I don't know much about SQF but thermoforming your own packaging is common in UK factories, especially things like sandwiches.
Hello TGM2010,
I work for a dairy company and we recently acquired 3 facilities with blow mold operations to make our own milk jugs - previously theses failities were BRC and have since been switched to SQF Level 2. As we dont sell the jugs, we have excluded them from our SQF certification program and it works out very well with both our CB and SQFI.
Regards
DenisB
Hi Dennis,
Thank you so much for your response. This is helpful.
TGM
Hi TGM,
I work at a SQF-certified Level 3 facility, and all we make are blowmold bottles and jars (except ours are for hotfill juice and applesauce). We are strictly category 27 in SQF, which means we only follow Modules 2 (System Elements) and 13 (GMP's for Food Package Manufacturing).
It could be argued that, even though you are not selling your bottles to outside customers, they are a part of your product (a food ingredient, if you will). I would compare module 13 to the modules you are currently certified under and see if there are any discrepancies you may need to address.
However, I'd say the easiest solution would be to ask either your certifying body or SQFI itself what is the proper thing to do in your specific situation. It would be best to find out now then to have an auditor bring it up at your re-certification as an issue.
-Christina
Hi Christina and TGM,
In our case, it was initially a recommendation from 2 different auditors to have the blow molding operation excluded from our certification program. So we contacted our CB and got technical advise from the certification manager who confirmed exclusion providing that the blow molding be segregated from the dairy manufacturing.
DenisB
I assume the auditors recommended excluding the blow-molding operation since it was a site that is physically separated from your filling operation site.
You then were just pursuing certification for only the filling operation site.
This means that you have to treat your blow-molding site as a supplier with adequate supplier approval and annual supplier review. You cannot completely ignore any potential risks associated with the jugs.
If your supplier approval criteria includes whether the supplier is GFSI certified, then your blow-molding operation may need to pursue certification for that site.
How does your blow-molding operation guarantee that their jugs are food safe? As mentioned above, the jugs are part of your product which you are selling.