Is positive release for incoming ingredients required?

We purchased the IFSQN package and the draft document for 2.4.4 mentions positive release for ingredients. I read the SQF code and don't see positive release as a required element of it. I need to get certified and I don't want to get beyond the required elements until after we cross the first hurtle. 

ken

Positive hold for both incoming and outgoing materials is not a strict requirement for SQF. It comes down to the amount of risk your company wants to assume and the risk of releasing a non-conforming product.

In general, if you plan to test your incoming materials for a food safety concern, that's fine as long as you're prepared to recall in the event of a positive test result. That tends to be the hiccup, as you will tend to get pushback from other departments when the consequence is recall vs. destruction. If you believe your company is prepared to accept the consequences of "bad" test results, then go ahead and pre-release items that are likely to have no problem.

Thanks, none of the ingredients we use are likely to be considered even medium risk. They are all naturally resistant to pathogen growth and processed to remove any physical hazard, so I feel comfortable without a release on the them. We are moving into areas where that may not be the case in the future but right now I need to get us up and running and skipping an area that isn't mandatory will help.

ken

Hi Ken,

Can try these threads for some background -

http://www.ifsqn.com...release-policy/

http://www.ifsqn.com...elease-program/

also possibly depends on definitions, eg terms like "Positive Release (PR)", "Product", "Compliant"

In SQF (and BRC) "PR" appears to be principally applied to [Finished] "Products", eg in SQF Guidance 7.2 -

The  product  release  procedure  not  only  applies  to  positive  release  of  compliant  products,  the  supplier  must  also outline the procedure for releasing products from quarantine or hold status.

(Regarding "Product", I deduce from SQF Code text such as 2.4.8 and elsewhere that "Product" in SQF typically means "Finished Product" unless otherwise stated.)

I'm unclear how you can freely "release"  ingredients which are found not compliant with their documented specifications but this may depend on the actual items under discussion.

 "Look before you Leap". ?

PS - I noticed this SOP in the Literature -

SOP, SQF - hold-and-release-of-nonconforming-product.pdf   155.54KB   197 downloads

Hi Ken,

Section 2.4.4 is the Approved Supplier Program (Mandatory), requirements include: