1 reply to this topic

[ColbyHolstein]

Hi all,

 

Our company is looking at opportunities cutting/wrapping cheese for smaller companies in the area that don't have the equipment. We would receive the finished cheese product and just run on the flow wrapper and store in the cooler. 

 

I'm wondering what documentation we need to be compliant with SQF. Product traceability dictates that we must be able to trace one step forward and one step back. If it's just one step back, all we should need is lot numbers and COA's from the small cheese producer, right, we wouldn't need details on where they source their raw ingredients? I guess I'm wondering if we should consider this customer a supplier as well since we will be receiving a product from them and running it on our equipment. Do we need all the same documentation that we would need from a new supplier?

 

Thanks,

 

C. Holstein

[jfrey123]

When I worked for a spice plant as my first QA job, our entire business model was 3PL processing:  we didn't own any of the material in our warehouse, we only processed material on workorders or authorizations of the clients, and it didn't get shipped until they gave the word and scheduled the trucks.

 

On traceability, we had records of where the material came from by lot number, when we processed it (milling, grinding, blending, packaging, etc), and then where it was shipped afterward.  This always satisfied auditors.

 

As for supplier approval, this always got sticky (and I'm talking 10 years ago before SQF codes got as rigorous as today, so take this with a grain of salt):  because we weren't the buyer of the product, we didn't have the owners listed as our approved vendors.  They were our customers, we were storing and processing on their behalf, and as such they didn't fit the description of vendors.  We operated under COA's stating the material was free from pathogens, and IIRC that's really about it.

 

There were a lot of caveats used by us at a 3PL in that case where we argued SQF code didn't apply: product formulations, material specs, etc.  We'd get as much as we could from our customers, but often they'd call it proprietary and only give us a bare minimum that we'd have to explain to the auditors.  You may find you end up in the same situations for many of these items.  You may want to develop a secondary HACCP plan to cover how you're running these co-packed items through your process, because it's likely your existing program will call for things that you won't always have for co-packed items.