Hello,
I have taken over as the QA/SQF practitioner for a RTE baked goods factory. We have a RTE cookie dough that is produced daily. There is no kill step for this product. It is mixed, cut, flash frozen and packaged. the consumer does not bake it. There is no egg, and has heat treated flour. Currently every single batch is being sent out daily to be tested for APC, Coliform and listeria spp. so some days we are sending in about 100 batches daily to be tested. I am changing our EMP to be more robust and have daily checks on the line including ATP, APC and Coliform for zone 1. Listeria SPP would be on a monthly or weekly. Also doing validatio testing to make sure that the final product is within guidelines for APC, Coliform and listeria spp (or jump right to L.mono).
Im basing this frequency on FDA and AIB (our certifying body) guidelines.
This is from only doing ATP tests along with final product testing and quarterly testing of listeria spp.
We produce several other products that are baked and none go out for finished product testing.
We do not have any contracts that say that we must test all finished products.
Do i need to continue to test every batch? It is costing the company a fortune.
Can we switch over to a better Environmental Program and do less product testing.
Of course i wouldnt change anything until i can show statistically with a hazard analysis that we can change our program etc.
what do other factories test for in this space? How often do you test final products?
I have talked to other QA managers And they said we are massively over testing and will probably test ourselves into trouble if we arent careful.
thankyou for any advise
Edited by amberlyda, 08 December 2021 - 01:30 PM.