Allergen Management in a Distribution Center
Hi there, I've been a long-time follower of this great forum and am greatly appreciative of all the salient tid bits I've been able to come across. I'm gonna take a shot in the dark here and fish for some more. I've been tasked with designing and implementing the food safety system at our warehouse in hopes of attaining SQF certification. We are a store of finished food product and as of recently, ambient dry raw ingredients-both of which contain allergens. The food product I know there isn't too much to worry about as far as storage practices since they're all enclosed in jars and cases then wrapped up on a pallet. My question is in regards to the ambient dry ingredients.
1.) Do these products need to be segregated or stored in a particular way to meet SQF compliance?
2.) Allergen spills-are separate cleaning tools required such as brooms and shovels? Disposition?
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!! Gianni
Segregation, yes - up and down. Tree Nuts and sep peanut storage, etc.
Need dedicated allergen tools and cleaning procedures in the event of container, box damage, spills, etc.
Fantastic, thanks, Glenn.
Do allergen types need to be stored separately as well? Or can all the allergens be stored in a segregated area altogether?
Up and down segregation - no touching of sides, soy up and soy down, tree nuts up and tree nuts down, peanuts their own little niche, eggs up and down, etc.
Don't commingle.
Fantastic, thanks, Glenn.
Do allergen types need to be stored separately as well? Or can all the allergens be stored in a segregated area altogether?
There are several threads here on related storage scenarios. SQF are picky regarding allergen separation (as are many other FS Standards)
IIRC, SQF also discuss this in their food manufacturing Guidelines manual.
Just to toss in my 2 cents, as having worked in a grocery distributor. Make sure a good assessment is also done on the allergens being stored with the end goal determining the level of segregation is sufficient.
For example, wheat flour in burlap bags gets EVERYWHERE. I had to put it in its own corner and tote so that it didn't visit neighbors. It was similar with bulk bags of dry mixes containing dehydrated milk.
Just to toss in my 2 cents, as having worked in a grocery distributor. Make sure a good assessment is also done on the allergens being stored with the end goal determining the level of segregation is sufficient.
For example, wheat flour in burlap bags gets EVERYWHERE. I had to put it in its own corner and tote so that it didn't visit neighbors. It was similar with bulk bags of dry mixes containing dehydrated milk.
Thank you. I will have QA (offsite) preside over this before our audit
I was told to conduct a risk assessment. The risk was so low of other product getting into other food because of multiple layers (packaging, secondary packaging, corrugate, and wrapping), that it want necessary to segregate finished product. We had to write a statement for this. We do not have peanuts.
I was told to conduct a risk assessment. The risk was so low of other product getting into other food because of multiple layers (packaging, secondary packaging, corrugate, and wrapping), that it want necessary to segregate finished product. We had to write a statement for this. We do not have peanuts.
Does this risk assessment need to be conducted by someone with a food/environmental science background? Is this the same as a Hazard analysis as it relates to SQF pre-requisite assessments?
In the allergen program you conduct a total allergen risk assessment from ingredients (which may be in your HACCP plan), break rooms, storage rooms, etc.
Related to the experience- it states that for a HACCP you need to have training. Nothing is said about background.