Allergen Management in Nut Processing industry
Hi All
Just wanting to check if anyone has experience in allergen management in nut processing industry.
I am new in this industry and the SQF auditor has requested me to look at allergen management which is very difficult as each individual nut has different allergens and we received mixes of nuts that contains various allergens. How can this be segregated in the warehouse?
Thanks
Hi All
Just wanting to check if anyone has experience in allergen management in nut processing industry.
I am new in this industry and the SQF auditor has requested me to look at allergen management which is very difficult as each individual nut has different allergens and we received mixes of nuts that contains various allergens. How can this be segregated in the warehouse?
Thanks
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I don't get why an SQF Auditor is making suggestions to you - how did that occur?
Besides that, you will need an alergen program with segregation of like items - as in, let's say you have packs or cans of mixed nuts - and the can or pack contains 5 different nuts - this get it's own slot in storage and marked as such, then your single items such as all other nuts (with the exception of peanuts) would be segregated on a per nut basis - up and down all the same - walnuts, pecans, filberts, etc - all get individual slotting in storage - peanuts get their own special area.
The best thing I've seen (didn't get a chance to implement at our own facility because our nuts are all leaving in one month, but one of our suppliers does this) is using color coded dots (size of maybe a silver dollar or something easily visible) for each allergen.
For example, lets say blue is coconut, red is peanut, green is pecan and gray is walnut, you would then use these color dots on your pallet tag when you receive them in. If one has multiple allergens, then you use multiple dots.
You can easily see in this way if you are storing them incorrectly. You can have a pallet with a green dot and blue dot above a pallet with a green dot and blue dot and red dot, or just a blue dot above a pallet with blue dot and green dot etc.
You will also immediately see if you are storing green and red above green, and know that is not correct, or green and blue above green and gray.
Without color coding it can be difficult to tell if you have the correct order by simply reading tags and remembering what types of nuts are where.
Hope this helps! I really liked it and was sad I didn't have a chance to implement it.
@ebb30 that's what we do
We also have what we call a license plate … the allergens are printed on it at receiving(product specific)
Depending on how deep your pockets are. You can install racking with solid shelving..(may help catching product during a spillage)