4 replies to this topic

[LesleySR]

Hi All

 

My employer has several manufacturing sites across USA/Europe/China & our sales people are pushing a number of "opportunities" our way to manufacture baby food (ie. for sale to children <36moths old) because the sales margins are high.

 

Our sites are all BRC A or above, one site has unannounced BRC status and we are moving to this across all sites - we have no food safety issues but.................... the sites were not designed for what I consider as "high risk" products - ie. sites do not have filtered air/hi care to low care junctions, overall & PPE changes between areas etc etc. as per

Codex CODE OF HYGIENIC PRACTICE FOR POWDERED FORMULAE FOR INFANTS AND YOUNG CHILDREN  CAC/RCP 66 - 2008 (attached)

(which covers production of foodstuffs for children to 36 months).

 

Our products are Freeze dried fruits & there is no microbiological kill step applied (there is robust supplier management  & various controls, but this will never 100% guarantee microbiological compliance to a strict specification due to the nature of the raw materials)

 

This makes me believe that it would be a risk to the business - I am trying to explain this to the management team and am looking for information sources to support my position. 

 

Does anybody have direct knowledge of baby food manufacture & the (factory) standards required?...

 

I have plenty of information on compositional requirements & standards for the finished products (pesticides/heavy metals etc etc.) but have been unable to find much information on factory manufacturing standards.

 

If anybody has direct experience of manufacturing standards for baby/infant food I would be extremely grateful if you could share your knowledge.

 

Many thanks

 

 

 European babyfood regulations.docx   11.14KB   23 downloads

[mahantesh.micro]

Hi LesleySR

What kind of baby food you are planning to manufacture, i mean whether you are planning milk based infant milk substitute formula or cereal based infant follow on formula??

[LesleySR]

Hi LesleySR

What kind of baby food you are planning to manufacture, i mean whether you are planning milk based infant milk substitute formula or cereal based infant follow on formula??

 

 

Hi mahantesh.micro

 

 

My apologies as my post was really not clear - we are not planning to manufacture babyfood itself as we are a B2B company not B2C.

 

The requests from our sales colleagues are to manufacture ingredients (dried or powdered fruit or vegetables)  that would then be used, by our customers, to manufacture finished products for infant/young children (ie. up to 36 mths).

 

I may be completely off track here but my understanding is that, if we are manufacturing these ingredients they would need to comply with the compositional requirements (chemical/pesticide), but more importantly, that our factory manufacturing standards would be expected to meet the same standards required for babyfood production to ensure food safety in the finished product.

[mahantesh.micro]

Hi mahantesh.micro

 

 

My apologies as my post was really not clear - we are not planning to manufacture babyfood itself as we are a B2B company not B2C.

 

The requests from our sales colleagues are to manufacture ingredients (dried or powdered fruit or vegetables)  that would then be used, by our customers, to manufacture finished products for infant/young children (ie. up to 36 mths).

 

I may be completely off track here but my understanding is that, if we are manufacturing these ingredients they would need to comply with the compositional requirements (chemical/pesticide), but more importantly, that our factory manufacturing standards would be expected to meet the same standards required for babyfood production to ensure food safety in the finished product.

Thank you for your information LesleySR,

Yes you have to follow manufacturing standards as that of infant food supplement standard, EU regulations are the best to refer, even i refer EU standards and specifications for ingredients etc while developing new specs.

May be you need focus more on GMP standards, infrastructure, air, water quality etc. to reduce microbial load in your end product. And also your raw material should meet the standards of infant foods for pesticides residues and heavy metals. 

As you have mentioned, refer Codex standard for hygiene practices also USFDA standards if required.

https://www.fda.gov/...ory-information

[LesleySR]

Hi mahantesh.micro

 

Thank you so much - this is really helpful.

 

We have no problems meeting the compositional requirements - pesticides/heavy metals etc. as these are included within our raw material specifications and we do a great deal of testing ourselves because the FD process concentrates any residues present within the raw material - products are exported worldwide so any import alerts would be a real problem for us.

 

It is the GMP standards that I was most concerned about & hence I have reported to our management team that whilst it is theoretically possible to meet these, it is likely that the production facilities would require substantial investment to bring them inline with Codex & FDA requirements to safely manufacture ingredients for baby food production.

 

Thank you again for your expertise - it is greatly appreciated