Hello everyone,
My company is a small, family operated pasta manufacturer specializing in IQF filled pastas. As a general rule our products are not ready to eat and validated cooking instructions are provided with the labeling. I have been with the company for about 6 months and with other issues aside I am now beginning to work on our supplier approval and coa requirements. As far back as I can tell the company "required coa's for each raw material" yet that has not, and is not, being followed. We work with several distributors which specialize in institutional accounts (restaurants, hospitals, etc.) with us, a manufacturer, being the exceptions. Because of that I am having a hopelessly hard time getting coa's for all of the raw materials.
I am putting together a system in which raw materials which carry a reasonable or foreseeable hazard will be tested by a third party lab. My question for all of you is whether or not there are certain raw materials that you don't require a coa or in-house testing for because the hazard is not reasonable. On my list I have a few spices (garlic, sugar, onion powder, etc.), tomato puree and paste because of the ph, and a few hard cheeses which according to the literature, do not support micro activity. I also have a risk assessment for each material which would, in my mind, mitigate a need for testing.
Thanks