Hazards associated with aging of tea in whiskey and rum barrels

Hi All, 

We are a SQF certified facility that deals with loose leaf tea. I am Barrel Aging tea at my facility.  I received a empty used whiskey and rum barrel from a local distillery. What I did was put the tea in mesh bags and placed it in the barrel so that it can hopefully get the essence of the whiskey.  I have a several questions.

1. How do I document this in my HACCP Plan?  I will run a hazard analysis but does it become a separate process?  All we do is blend and repack here to ship out to wholesale customers. So our flow map is pretty straight forward.

2. The distillery that supplied us the used barrels are they a contractor or a Supplier?  

3.Do I need Specs for the barrels?

4. What I was going to test for as soon as the batch is complete was Salmonella, E-Coli, Yeast and Mold.  Is there something else I should test for? 

5. Does the barrel have a risk I should be aware of?

Thank you in advance guys 

Yes, separate process.
They would be a supplier not a contractor.

I understand testing on the back end, not understanding why you would not test the barrels upon arrival too?.

Oh, you need specs too.

The risk from the barrels would be slivers coming loose and contaminating your product, but I think one can safely assume that USED barrels would pose such a small risk that it's inconsequential.

 

I would be testing them for listeria as well..............given that they are a natural material and all of the alcohol may have evaporated, your left with slightly damp rotting wood (unless of course they have been charred inside)

HI Glen and Scampi, 

Scampi, the inside is charred and was told that the char does come off and that was why I put the tea in a fine mesh bag.  I did not want to risk any debris in our product.  I will add listeria to the list of what I will test for.

Glen, you are right I should test the barrels.  What tests should I conduct on the barrels?  As far as the distiller goes, these barrels were given to us for free, we did not pay for them.  Can we just do all the proper testing ourselves and take the risk and that will be justification?  We do have a strong supplier approval program and quite honestly I feel that they may feel inadequate doing so being held responsible for anything.  

I'd test for everything on the front end as you do on the back end plus visual and blacklight for pests/urine tracking (not knowing how they are stored prior to shipment to you,etc.

As to full blown supplier program adherence I'd simply have them send you a letter on their letterhead indicating their specs on these and how they give them to you for free.

Then you enter them as an occasional supplier of flavor/flavor enhancement and you run your own testing and document everything.