When I joined the company I inherited a visitors questionnaire which asked 'Have you visited a meat processing plant within the last 24hrs?'. No one knew the rationale as to why this was included and what to do if anyone answered yes. When the form was revised a few years later the question was removed and the subject has never been raised by either a customer or a BRC auditor. A member of staff who had visited a food manufacturing factory recently said the questionnaire they completed included this question.
Does anyone include this question in their visitors questionnaire?
If yes and a visitor has answered yes to visiting a meat processing plant what action was taken?
and why is this question included?
Thanks
Hi Classic,
Personally i have never encountered the question you refer.
It has some similarity to an Inspector's "rule of thumb" I met for assessing seafood storage units - no meat/poultry may be stored in same room. For something like (Poultry/Campylobacter/non-Poultry) raw materials there may be some logical direct validation. For finished, packed, goods in a Cold Store rather more problematic IMO.
I guess the logic (rightly or wrongly) is an interpretation of the "Precautionary Principle", in this case Guilty by Association.
I predict the intended corrective action was some, possibly stricter, version of "refusal of entry to production-related areas".
Based on the previous posts, i guess the inclusion of such question and the corrective action to a "yes" might relate to (a) Company Policy, (b) what kind of business you are doing, (c) Your Risk assessment. ??
Unless you strictly follow the Precautionary Principle of course.