Hi achillengnabe,
This is about purchasing controls, goods-in inspections and preparation procedures.
Let’s look at the requirements in ISO 22000 & the relevant ISO 22002 series:
INTERNATIONAL ISO STANDARD 22000:2018 Food safety management systems — Requirements for any organization in the food chain
8.2.3 When selecting and/or establishing PRP(s), the organization shall ensure that applicable statutory, regulatory and mutually agreed customer requirements are identified.
The organization should consider:
a) the applicable part of the ISO/TS 22002 series;
b) applicable standards, codes of practice and guidelines.
8.2.4 When establishing PRPs the organization should consider:
…..
f) supplier approval and assurance processes (e.g. raw materials, ingredients, chemicals and packaging);
g) reception of incoming materials, storage, dispatch, transportation and handling of products;
TECHNICAL ISO/TS SPECIFICATION 22002-2 Prerequisite programmes on food safety —
Part 2: Catering
4.5 Purchasing management
4.5.2 Incoming material requirements (raw materials, ingredients, and packaging)
The conditions of raw materials, ingredients, and packaging, in addition to the established criteria, expiration date, and packaging integrity shall be inspected, verified, and approved at point of receipt. Raw materials and ingredients requiring special storage conditions (e.g. temperature), shall be controlled and records should be maintained to demonstrate that the proper storage conditions were provided.
Raw materials, ingredients or packaging batches that are non-compliant shall be immediately returned to the supplier. If this is not possible, these items shall be properly identified, labelled and stored separately until further action can be decided.
Measures shall be taken to avoid contamination of prepared food during receipt of goods.
5 Specific prerequisite programmes
5.2 Preparation
5.2.1 Fresh fruits and vegetables
The preparation shall be performed under suitable conditions in a well illuminated area.
The pre-prepared products shall be kept under suitable conditions (e.g. refrigeration), and adequately labelled where appropriate.
Depending on the product and its intended use, selected, pre-washed, and, if necessary, pre-cut fruits and vegetables should be:
a) washed with potable water, with added disinfectant where appropriate and legally permitted;
b) rinsed with potable water (where appropriate and legally required).
So, your incoming produce should be from an approved supplier, you should be inspecting your goods on intake and your preparation procedures should remove any undesirable items such as caterpillars and worms.
You need to be doing extra inspection to identify where the problem is coming from. Your staff need to be made aware of the issue and told to report any issues they find so that you can investigate further.
Your complaints can also be analysed to determine if there is a common theme and if you can narrow down the source.
If you find a problem with a specific material then you need to be making your supplier aware but also conduct extra checks on incoming materials and instruct staff to be more diligent when preparing the food. It also may be a case of staff requiring more training in incoming good checks and food preparation.
Kind regards,
Tony
