Sample Retention - how long?
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to double check - for finished product sample retention, how long do we need to keep the samples for? I was under the assumption that it's retained for its entire shelf life and records of any micro testing are retained for 3 years.
For context, our product is ready to heat with 5 days of shelf life and we are working to BRC V9 standards.
Hi everyone,
Just wanted to double check - for finished product sample retention, how long do we need to keep the samples for? I was under the assumption that it's retained for its entire shelf life and records of any micro testing are retained for 3 years.
For context, our product is ready to heat with 5 days of shelf life and we are working to BRC V9 standards.
3.3.2 Records shall be retained for a defined period with consideration given to:
• any legal or customer requirements
• the shelf life of the product.
This shall take into account, where it is specified on the label, the possibility that shelf life may be extended by the consumer (e.g. by freezing).
At a minimum, records shall be retained for the shelf life of the product plus 12 months
.Sample retention time is unspecified.
No requirements. I'm keeping my retain samples for shelf life + 1 week, however it might depend on customer request to retain samples longer.
P.S. I'm wondering how people manage with products having 1+ year shelf life? One of my clients is ice cream manufacturer, and shelf life is 1 year. If he kept 1 tub (11.4 L) of each batch for a year, he wouldn't have space in the freezer for anything else!
Hey, professionals anybody has an answer?
You need a big warehouse. And yup, we keep to end of life. Having said that, if we have products like 5L, we take a smaller sample of that. To save on space.
My understanding is that it's up to the manufacturer to decide how long after end of shelf life the samples should be kept. Might depend a bit on the customer. I remember we had customers that had different demands (I mean requirements 😉) for how long we should keep them for.
But our retention samples take up 2 pallet spaces 😅😅
Hi INTer,
I think what you are doing is fine but would add a few days before disposal of your products in case there is slow communication of an issue and you want to refer to the sample for investigation purposes. Ideally you want customer agreement on any retention period.
I agree with previous comments from olenazh, Setanta, Charles and AJL, also note BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety Issue 9 Clause 5.6.3:
The site shall ensure that a system of validation and ongoing verification of the shelf life is in place. This shall be based on risk and shall include sensory analysis and, as applicable, microbiological testing and relevant chemical factors such as pH and aw. Records and results from shelf-life tests shall verify the shelf-life period indicated on the product.
BRCGS Interpretation Guidelines - Shelf-life verification:
Shelf-life testing may be critical to product safety; for example, where the product is susceptible to the growth of pathogens. Therefore, after the initial shelf life is determined (see clause 5.1.4), the site is expected to have a programme of ongoing shelf-life validation and verification across its range of products or product types. To achieve this, samples should be retained from some or all production runs.
Records must be available supporting the declared shelf life for each product or group of similar products.
Kind regards,
Tony
We manufacture tea and coffee... We take retain samples from the beginning and end then they are stored for 2 years (shelf life) then they are put into boxes after they are in boxes they are then held for another year then thrown out. We are under BRC as well...
Shelf life is generally long enough, but we have held some periodically for a year longer to do additional validation of the shelf life targets for newer products. With products in the 9-18month shelf life range, shelf stable.
...I'm wondering how people manage with products having 1+ year shelf life? ...
Rooms in the warehouse area dedicated to holding shelf life samples. After some items have reached shelf life they're taken down and sorted into groups based on remaining shelf life, boxed and palletized and held in a warehouse. Some samples are selected randomly when they reach shelf life to be subjected to the same battery of testing that new products are for verification/validation. If no relevant consumer complaints come up that require re-examination or testing, the rest are destroyed when they reach shelf life -- for practical reasons this is probably a month or two later than shelf life.
It is probably close to a truck load of retains samples.
Most companies I worked for stored product for the duration of shelf life so if a question came in, we had comparison material ready to go.