Approval of commodities

Hi all.

We're re-considering our approach to supplier approval for commodities. Currently we approve each and every manufacturer and not the actual supplier. So far it's been easy as we're predominantly a juice company. However, recently our commercial strategy has changed and there is a greater focus on NPD and manufacturing concentrates etc. for brand owners to use at their bottlers. This means that we will be sourcing more acidifiers, vitamins and sweeteners etc. These might be small amounts chosen for each project, so we don't want to go through the standard supplier approval process for just $250 worth of stuff. The manufacturers would probably laugh at us anyway.

I'm considering approving the supplier and relying on them to have performed any due diligence necessary. Note that these will be commodity chemicals (food safe) and not foods. Note that the suppliers might not be GFSI.

What definition should I use for a commodity? A chemical/material that is identical no matter where I source it from? Does anyone have a better definition?

Does this approach make sense?

Thanks for your suggestions and comments.

I'd call it a food grade chemical, but don't consider it idential no matter where you purchase. Non-descript white powders are extremely vulnerable to food fraud. Purity testing can be less than 60$ and I suggest you include it in your program.

Hi FurFarmandFork,

I'd like to think that if we used a big supplier (c.f. Univar, Brenntag etc.) that we would be buying the right white powders with the appropriate checks by the supplier. We'll bear it in mind when we chose our 2-3 suppliers though.