SQF 2.4.3.6 - Fumigation Flow Diagram
Hello, New member here, first posting.
I work for a Rice Toll Processor, we recently had our SQF audit. One of our non-conformances was as follows:
2.4.3.6 – “Fumigation is utilized at intervals from treatment of product and treatment of facilities. This is not evident in the flow diagrams.”
This is only our second SQF audit, we have process flow maps in place for our Mill and Packing etc.. But I am not quite sure how to create a process diagram for fumigation.
There are two types of fumigation we do.
1. Facility - We have fumigation lines permanently installed throughout the facility that connect to sprayers (for lack of a better term) and then the fumigant cylinders are is connected outside to these lines.
2. Product is placed in big shipping containers and fumed with tablets that way.
If someone has an idea on how to create a prosses diagram that would be helpful or if someone has an example they would like to share.
This seems that it would be very simple, but I am not exactly sure what the auditor was looking for here.
I can provide additional details as necessary.
Thank You
I'm assuming you're talking about your HACCP flow diagrams, and my guess is that as you process the rice, you sometimes fumigate and sometimes do not? Describing somewhere in your program about why you sometimes do and sometimes do not would be helpful (maybe it's solely at customer request, maybe it's to control micro, and that'll affect how you list it).
You can add the step as optional pathing on your flow chart, dashed lines to it in between the two steps it normally takes place at. On your Hazard Analysis, you'll have to add it like any other step and discuss the biological/chemical/physical/radiological/etc hazards associated, and categorize them accordingly. IF YOU ARE fumigating to control a hazard such as a pathogen, there's a good likelihood that this becomes a CCP, in which case you'll need to justify which batches are fumigated vs not and why.
Hello jfrey, I appreciate the quick response. Yes, the fumigation is included in our HACCP plan due to the chemical (fumigant) used. We fumigate the facility occasionally for insect as part of our IPM system, mostly we schedule it when we are going to have a 3 day weekend and we are not processing. We also fumigate for certain customers that request it. I think where I have questions is where to place it on a process map as it is a process in itself. Maybe it just needs to have its own separate process map.
Thank You
You need to put fumigation step in the main flow diagram. If you can share us your existing flow diagram we can suggest the exact location to show the step.
Hello,
Step 1 - We have fumigation lines permanently installed throughout the facility that connect to sprayers (for lack of a better term) and then the fumigant cylinders are is connected outside to these lines - this is your fumigation process. Add this to the HACCP process flow then to the Hazard analysis for different types of hazards (Microbiological, Chemical, radiological, allergens, Physical). Same for step 2.
you can add info that is not a everyday process, but this will be important to show how you are managing such process (SOP & documents) and who is trained etc.
Then update TACCP of this step as well.
When I worked in a rice mill in CA I just added the fumigation step as optional on the HACCP Flow Chart either in phoxtoxin pellets or misted from sprayers. Being optional, you can byspass it if the lot is not fumigated.
Packing Flow.pdf 1.24MB 21 downloadsMill Flow.pdf 1.32MB 16 downloadsHello,
Thank you all for your input. Mohammed. I attached a copy of our flow diagrams for mill process and packaging. You can see I entered on the packaging flow (#30) Fumigation as optional, this would be per customer request, not required. This would be done in containers prior to shipment. Would I want to enter the same as above for fumigation of product in our finished product tanks on the mill process flow map? When we fume, we pipe in Eco fume to the tanks individually.
Packing Flow.pdf Mill Flow.pdfHello,
Thank you all for your input. Mohammed. I attached a copy of our flow diagrams for mill process and packaging. You can see I entered on the packaging flow (#30) Fumigation as optional, this would be per customer request, not required. This would be done in containers prior to shipment. Would I want to enter the same as above for fumigation of product in our finished product tanks on the mill process flow map? When we fume, we pipe in Eco fume to the tanks individually.
Yes. You need to show in mill process flow diagram too.
Do you rework or reprocess the product? Rework or reprocess is absent in the flow diagram.
The second, containerized, fumigation would be easy to place in the flow diagram.
The first type you mention sounds as if it occurs across a much wider area, and affects materials in multiple stages of processing. Is that correct?