Seeking example of validations for food safety plans?

Can anyone give me an example of validations for food safety plans?  For instance....I work in food flavoring/ingredients.  What would a validation be for finished product?  we have always accepted product of CoA from the vendor.  There is not kill step for flavorings, because they have always been meant for further processing by the end customer (which is a manufacturer....not the general public).  

We are kind of stuck here as to how we validate this to preventive controls / fsma specifications.  And yes, we have been through the class.  We think we may be overthinking it, but just want to check to see what others out there are using for validations.

Thanks much,

Lynn

Hi,

I am in the flavourings/ seasonings industry too, the best way you may be able to validate your reasons for just using C of As - is to carry out ring trail validation testing against the certificates you are receiving across a few products. If you carry out once a year as proof of validation work this would be fine.

Or you could look at the number of complaints you have received over the last year for instance against micro issues and say we have had no complaints regarding micro issues / over this many batches we feel that certs of analysis from suppliers is sufficient.

You basically just need to give the reasons why you carry out the process you currently are using and normally the best way to prove this is by your systems in place - if you have lots of issues with micro but with just one product for instance it may be you need to look at testing that specifically. 

I hope this makes sense.

Regards

Chris