8 replies to this topic

[tde19]

Happy Friday!

 

I have a question/would like some opinions on how to, or if it is possible to combine aged material into newer product as a lot? I have an ask from production who has some older lots of material (about 6 months into shelf life out of 18 months) that they would like to blend with a newer lot to create a new lot without wasting the material. How would you put this into a procedure?

 

We produce a dry ingredient for pet food or animal feed. 

 

 

For example if an order is for 45,000lbs we would allow for 5% of older material to be mixed in. Could this number be increased? Should it vary depending on how old the material is? For 0-3 months you can put up to 50% 3-6 10% and 6-12 5%. With anything older than 12 months must be reprocessed?

 

Thank you in advance for your opinions/advice! 

[QAGB]

It is possible to do this. It really depends on your product and whether you would anticipate increased risks for reworking older material. Will it negatively affect the end product's shelf life/quality attributes? Do you understand your product well enough to know its attributes throughout its shelf life? 

 

In my experience, we didn't add more than 10% rework unless the issue was related to underweight packed product or something similar. It should likely vary in percentage based on how old it is, but you need to determine your food safety & quality risks to figure out what's doable.

[SQFconsultant]

 

Happy Friday!

 

I have a question/would like some opinions on how to, or if it is possible to combine aged material into newer product as a lot? I have an ask from production who has some older lots of material (about 6 months into shelf life out of 18 months) that they would like to blend with a newer lot to create a new lot without wasting the material. How would you put this into a procedure?

 

We produce a dry ingredient for pet food or animal feed. 

 

 

For example if an order is for 45,000lbs we would allow for 5% of older material to be mixed in. Could this number be increased? Should it vary depending on how old the material is? For 0-3 months you can put up to 50% 3-6 10% and 6-12 5%. With anything older than 12 months must be reprocessed?

 

Thank you in advance for your opinions/advice! 

 

Ahh, leave to production to come up with nifty ideas.

 

How do your customers feel about the reduction of shelf from18 months to 12 months?

[tde19]

@QAGB- we are able to show our product quality is not impacted up to our shelf life date, and even further. I am not so much worried about product quality but rather what is the "right" percentage and "right" allowable time frame to mix product. Thank you for your response!

 

@SQF Consultant- they always make life fun!! Our customers request at least 12 month shelf life at time of arrival.

[QAGB]

@QAGB- we are able to show our product quality is not impacted up to our shelf life date, and even further. I am not so much worried about product quality but rather what is the "right" percentage and "right" allowable time frame to mix product. Thank you for your response!

 

@SQF Consultant- they always make life fun!! Our customers request at least 12 month shelf life at time of arrival.

 

 

I think 10% is a fair, general maximum rework percentage for product (a lot of our customers wanted this). You can also assess further if you can exceed that percentage on a case-by-case approval process. There is no set "right" percentage or allowable time. As you indicate quality is not impacted during your shelf life and further, your risk is a lot lower. 

[FoodSafetyPlanet]

Hi T,

Before introducing anything into commerce, I recommend running some shelf life validation studies and proximate analysis testing (at least prior to using the old lot) so you have data to support your decision.

It sounds like you’re sending direct to consumer, so you have a bit more control on the timeline.

[mahantesh.micro]

Hi,

As FoodSafetyPlanet rightly said, the product should be tested for its stability when you mix with another batch with less shelf life.

Mixing is allowed maximum 10% if remaining shelf life is 3-6 months. 

[Parkz58]

I have a feeling a lot of people are commenting on this from a food safety standpoint, not from a feed safety standpoint.

 

Re-mixing and rework blending are very common in livestock feed production.  In my experience, I have never found a hard-and-fast rule as to maximum quantities.  Every location I've seen has their own policies and procedures on it, and it's often based upon a number of factors, including customer requirements, product shelf life, specific attributes of the feed (for example, textured feed containing molasses may have a lower inclusion percentage than a pelleted product that is being blended in as rework and re-pelleted).

 

As you know, shelf life for livestock feed is often somewhat arbitrarily determined, and often has more to do with "freshness", palatability, and other quality-based attributes, rather than actual feed safety attributes, so it does become a lot more product-specific than a generalized food safety rework rule might be.  If you haven't already, I would create a simple Finished Product Specification sheet for each type of finished product, and determine what the shelf life and add-back rates would be and document them accordingly.

 

That being said, you do need to adhere to your own rules regarding shelf life dates, and if you have an established shelf life date set for a product of 12 months, an you use rework that is 6 months old, you need to date the newly reworked finished product accordingly.

[DeadPresident]

 

Happy Friday!

 

I have a question/would like some opinions on how to, or if it is possible to combine aged material into newer product as a lot? I have an ask from production who has some older lots of material (about 6 months into shelf life out of 18 months) that they would like to blend with a newer lot to create a new lot without wasting the material. How would you put this into a procedure?

 

We produce a dry ingredient for pet food or animal feed. 

 

 

For example if an order is for 45,000lbs we would allow for 5% of older material to be mixed in. Could this number be increased? Should it vary depending on how old the material is? For 0-3 months you can put up to 50% 3-6 10% and 6-12 5%. With anything older than 12 months must be reprocessed?

 

Thank you in advance for your opinions/advice! 

 

 

Can you tell me how you came up with those percentages?

 

I have ran into this issue at my new job. We are a raw sausage manufacturer and sell our products frozen. We only provide a 6 month shelf life on our products. However, I ran into an issue the other day where we had product that was passed the shelf life ( 8 moths old )and production wanted to use it as rework. I am new here and I don't believe we have established ratios of what percentage of rework can go into "fresh product. Aside from that, what are your thoughts, opinions, facts on this practice? Would it constitute food fraud?