Frequency of testing for Pesticides and Heavy Metals
Hi all,
My question is related to obtaining Certificates of Analysis for Pesticides and Heavy Metals in Spices and Vegetables.
Our customers when coming for an audit expect to see Certificates issued within the past year for every single raw material.
When I request an annual update though from some of my suppliers (BRC approved) I struggle to get them as they only test few random products and consider my request as unreasonable due to the cost of the tests. Spices come from various countries like China, India, Egypt etc.
Could you please advise what frequency of testing for pesticides and HM do you consider reasonable?
We manufacture ready to eat foods and are BRC v7 accredited.
Many thanks!
Hi all,
My question is related to obtaining Certificates of Analysis for Pesticides and Heavy Metals in Spices and Vegetables.
Our customers when coming for an audit expect to see Certificates issued within the past year for every single raw material.
When I request an annual update though from some of my suppliers (BRC approved) I struggle to get them as they only test few random products and consider my request as unreasonable due to the cost of the tests. Spices come from various countries like China, India, Egypt etc.
Could you please advise what frequency of testing for pesticides and HM do you consider reasonable?
We manufacture ready to eat foods and are BRC v7 accredited.
Many thanks!
Hi Technigal,
I note you are BRC certified.
Does yr BRC certification material include submitting data such as you refer ? If so i assume it's risk-based ?
If so, IMO, this data/frequency should then be justifiable for yr customers also.
But, unfortunately, Customers by nature often tend to be "unreasonable". Especially when they are not paying. You may have no option but to oblige.
Hi Charles,
Thank you very much for your response.
It is not that much with regards to our BRC audit but is mainly required by our Customers as part of their audits.
So basically is it reasonable to expect to get a Pesticide test for every raw material on an annual basis?
Hi Charles,
Thank you very much for your response.
It is not that much with regards to our BRC audit but is mainly required by our Customers as part of their audits.
So basically is it reasonable to expect to get a Pesticide test for every raw material on an annual basis?
Hi Technigal,
A logical answer (as implied by yr OP) would be to "risk assess". This is often validatably interpretable as guessing a number, eg 2-monthly, and then reducing the frequency based on (hopefully) satisfactory results. Various related refs exist on this forum.
However, customer obduracy may simply demand your company to then make a financial decision, not a QA one, so presumably not then yr problem. :smile:
Hi Technigal,
I work in the juice industry and we make it a part of our contract with our suppliers that they supply us with pesticide, heavy metal and authenticity analyses annually and on demand. We also make a point of asking them how often these tests are performed. Our suppliers do not have a problem with this (and if they do, are no longer our suppliers). We need to ensure that our juice is safe and legal, so we ensure that our suppliers know this too! Authenticity can be problematic as it is expensive, so a berry juice or vegetable juice supplier might be able to justify testing every product.
I'd recommend testing yourself at a minimum annually for each supplier. It does come at a cost but given you need to do food fraud vulnerability assessments anymore, you might as well take control of the testing and satisfy both requirements at the same time.
Dear All,
My question is related to obtaining Certificates of Analysis for Pesticides and Heavy Metals in Spices and Vegetables
Could you please advise what frequency of testing for pesticides and HM do you consider reasonable?
I assume your suppliers are "Approved" in the context of BRC7.
I deduce yr BRC certification does not require you to have COAs for all your sourced materials.
It appears your Customers do not accept your BRC certification as matching their audit requirements. Not so unusual based on other threads here.
Assuming yr Customers have the "leverage" the definition of "reasonable" is then unfortunately up to them.
And similarly for yr own Suppliers of course.
Business rules ?