Allergen package in a package storage
Hi,
I am new to the food side of my company and we are a 3PL ambient storage facility that is starting the HACCP and SQF journey. We are dry storage only and most pallets come in and ship out without us doing anything but putting it in the rack, along with some case picking. We have some ingredients (dried fruit/sugar/nuts) and a couple raw materials (flour), but most of it is RTE or items that are going directly on grocery store shelves. If we see food outside the packaging it's considered damaged and always set for disposal. We do not do any repacking.
I am looking for guidance on allergen storage and can only find info for raw materials (which we do segregate). All of our product is palletized, and a lot of it is in packaging (bag, can, bottle), in a box, and wrapped in stretch wrap. We also have some liquids in drums and 250-gallon containers that contain allergens as well as bagged product on a slip sheet and wrapped in stretch wrap. We also have things like nuts, seeds, and sauces that are technically RTE, but are used as ingredients by those we ship to.
I've seen reference to package in package storage, but cannot find anything official on the FDA website. Google searches take me to forums or info on raw material storage for manufacturers. Looking it up for retail takes me to food prep info, nothing about how to organize allergens when stocking shelves.
Can someone please share any info on "package in package" that is a little more official? Or keywords to use in my searches?
Do we need to segregate liquids in a drum, or will having disposal on our HACCP plan be okay since even if it's water damage, many items would be tossed or sent back based on customer disposition? I can't image that breadcrumbs falling on the stretch wrap of sesame oil (in a bottle in a box) would be an allergen concern, but sesame oil dripping onto bagged breadcrumbs would damage it regardless of the allergen concern.
Bagged peanuts over bagged raisins okay if the customer makes trail mix even though not all the mixes have peanuts in them?
I am pretty sure I'm overthinking the entire HACCP process, and would rather have too much info than too little, however I'd rather not recommend the warehouse rework everything if it's not needed.
Thank you,
Probably not the answer you are looking for, but you should be following the basic allergen storage procedures.
Only like allergens above like allergens. You can have non allergens above allergens. There should be some segregation on the side of each allergen type. They should be labeled or otherwise identified as well. You should have a clean up plan and well as training for all personnel.
Food manufactures that produce sealed retail / cased and palletized products segregate their finished product based on allergens. While I agree that there may be several layers of protection and the risk of contaminating the product are pretty low, it still is the best practice. There is also a risk of susceptible people handling the product where the outside of the packaging is contaminated. I have added a couple of links there are also a few threads on here regarding the subject.
https://www.ifsqn.co...ibution-center/
https://www.food-saf...dernization-act
Since you are going SQF - look this up in the code for storage and distribution.
Probably not the answer you are looking for, but you should be following the basic allergen storage procedures.
Only like allergens above like allergens. You can have non allergens above allergens. There should be some segregation on the side of each allergen type. They should be labeled or otherwise identified as well. You should have a clean up plan and well as training for all personnel.
Food manufactures that produce sealed retail / cased and palletized products segregate their finished product based on allergens. While I agree that there may be several layers of protection and the risk of contaminating the product are pretty low, it still is the best practice. There is also a risk of susceptible people handling the product where the outside of the packaging is contaminated. I have added a couple of links there are also a few threads on here regarding the subject.
https://www.ifsqn.co...ibution-center/
https://www.food-saf...dernization-act
Thank you. This really helps because I thought I was going crazy not being able to find anything else. I've already mentioned what's in these links, but feedback was "package in a package." I will share this as we move forward.