Hello All,
My inquiry is regarding COA's and whether we can create our own COA based off an external, 3rd party laboratory results.
Some added context as to why I am asking this:
First off, we test our product to customer specifications. Although it is generally the same product, not all product is tested equally. If product doesn't meet certain parameters, it may be rejected for one customer, but be well within spec for another. In these cases, we may have to submit again for analysis that may not have been tested the first time.
We are currently going through a rather rough transition with out COA's. As we have had some growth within the company, we have more personnel collecting samples and sending them off to the lab. The issue at hand is that there are many mistakes as to what the product is being tested for. Some samples are getting tested for things that weren't required, others are missing tests then we end up having to resend product which create delays and an not to mention added costs. Some are improperly labeled resulting in errors on the COA. One process needed to be sent to the lab about 14 times. Why 14 times? It became so convoluted I couldn't really tell you, nonetheless it happened and we see so many retests due to mistakes. I imagine the costs are extremely high.
We would like to take results from the COA's with data provided and issue them ourselves, in some cases. That way, there aren't 14 COA's for one batch. We simply want to report the requested tests with out extra or missing data.
I know the real issue is to fix the root cause of the issue, but this has not been something that our FS department has been unable to do as we are not given the authority over the personnel collecting/sending samples (crazy, yes). The unusual part is that, Food Safety is handled by the Food Safety Director and quality technicians are under the Site Director. For whatever reason, Food Safety and Quality have been separated and this has been grandfathered in to the facility and mindset. Due to the transition, since about February, we have had to deal with the mistakes "as they learn". Problem is that instead of improving, its just become status quo and ok to carry on this way. When the mistakes happen, only then is is thrown to FS to talk to the lab and explain to the customer.
Ok, I got carried away, but can we issue our own COA's based off valid data?