Starting a Foreign Material Exclusion plan
Hi! I am very new into the food safety world and just got a job as a quality control manager *under mentorship of my mom/previous boss and food safety wiz. I am trying to do as much as I can without asking her first. This helps me learn too by talking to others and getting a more rounded opinion)
My company is wanting to start a foreign material exclusion plan. I'm not quite sure where to start. I am BRC certified but I took the class a year ago and haven't needed to use it until now.
We have an approved supplier program, glass and brittle plastics policies, and a metal detector.
I have begun by writing up an explanation of foreign material exclusion to give to more upper management. My cohort on this project would like to make it easier for the production line workers to comprehend and follow. Kind of like an SOP, that will be easy to access, review, and follow.
Any ideas how to make that work? Is it necessary? Or should it be sufficient to complete training with employees and keep just an overview of everything that goes into this plan?
I look forward to insight.
Erika.
I have attached the explanation I've started so you can have an idea where I'm at. My cohort liked this. However he is not in food safety and I feel it is lacking. I do want to add the other programs that corelate to it as well such as an approved supplier program.
Hi! I am very new into the food safety world and just got a job as a quality control manager *under mentorship of my mom/previous boss and food safety wiz. I am trying to do as much as I can without asking her first. This helps me learn too by talking to others and getting a more rounded opinion)
My company is wanting to start a foreign material exclusion plan. I'm not quite sure where to start. I am BRC certified but I took the class a year ago and haven't needed to use it until now.
We have an approved supplier program, glass and brittle plastics policies, and a metal detector.
I have begun by writing up an explanation of foreign material exclusion to give to more upper management. My cohort on this project would like to make it easier for the production line workers to comprehend and follow. Kind of like an SOP, that will be easy to access, review, and follow.
Any ideas how to make that work? Is it necessary? Or should it be sufficient to complete training with employees and keep just an overview of everything that goes into this plan?
I look forward to insight.
Erika.
I have attached the explanation I've started so you can have an idea where I'm at. My cohort liked this. However he is not in food safety and I feel it is lacking. I do want to add the other programs that corelate to it as well such as an approved supplier program.
Hi Erika,
What kind of Product / Process ?
Is yr Exclusion Plan to be safety-prioritised ? Intended for BRC Compliance ? (I deduce facility not yet BRC certified)
No attachment, (You need to click "more options" box on low right hand side and follow instructions on new page).
You need a plan, but a SOP for the workers on the line as well. The company has done a lot of the leg work by already having a glass procedure and a metal detector in place. Is that metal detector regularly tested? How often? With what sort of test pieces? Are the test pieces inside test packaging? Where is the metal detector in the whole process flow?
I usually find a top level program document is a good place to catch an "overview" of a process. For something like FM exclusions, it's a place where you can list all material types you're concerned about, the hazards they present and a brief statement of how they are managed within your plant.
Under the program, in separate documents, I tend to write my specific SOP's on how to handle the processes as the training materials for production employees. I break out glass and brittle plastics handling, wood control, metal control, chemical control, etc., into different SOP's that the employees are trained upon. My SOP's reference any audits that are performed related to FM control, but the procedure for performing audits goes into a different section.
I believe all programs/SOP's should be published in a place accessible to all employees for reference when needed, and training records should detail reviewing those specific SOP's with the employees to ensure they received training on the most current version of your program. I've run into situations where separate training materials had been issued for production employees that failed to receive updates when the separate SOP's were updated, and training ended up being conducted with bad/dated concepts. Something to keep in mind anytime you generate separate "training" documents from your SOP's.