Sainsbury's Code of Practice for the Control of Allergen Cross Contamination

Morning all, we have a 'free-from' audit with Sainsbury's coming up and I wondered if anybody had a sampling plan (for gluten) that they wouldn't mind sharing?

Greetings Blue Ian,

There is no specific sampling plan for gluten. As with almost everything you put up in your sampling plan and its frequency it derives either from legislation (eg potable water) or from a risk analysis. So, what you could do is make a RA for said parameter and take into account things like supplier trust (through audits or letter of conformances or certification or combinations of these), possibility of cross-contamination with products that are not gluten-free in various steps of your processes (from the receiving of raw materials to the end product), ease of cross-contamination cause some raw materials can be easily mixed up due to their nature/collection method/storage/transportation (not talking about adulteration) and lastly adulteration history of your raw materials.

All or some of these (or others that I haven't thought of) suggestions will eventually give you a frequency for your sampling plan. In my experience an auditor is happier when you can back up your sampling plan with some data that you took into account rather than free-setting it which makes it open to a lot of usually unwanted discussion.

To be clear you can't end up with no need for sampling at all !!!

Hope it helps!

Morning all, we have a 'free-from' audit with Sainsbury's coming up and I wondered if anybody had a sampling plan (for gluten) that they wouldn't mind sharing?

Sometimes a specific sampling plan can be derived but the first step is to define what you are sampling from (eg Lot) and for what purpose (eg to estimate average % X).

Hi! 

I just tried to send you a message and it said you can't use the messaging system? 

:(