HACCP for Label Printers

Dear All,
We have recently been audited by one of our major suppliers and need to conform to the new BRC/IoP legsilation brought in. We are a small printing firm and this is a new step for us. All the courses/books/websites we have lloked at seem to mainly refer to HACCP controlling food issues, whereas we need something more specific. Granted in the whole scheme of things, if labels are mixed with different labels and used then a prodcut recall coudl be initiated but that is mainly where we find ourselves stuck. Does anybody have any hints or help to construct a solid HACCP for a printing firm, or have and links to websites which would be useful?

Pete

Dear Peter,

My guess is that Simon or some other packaging guru will be of more direct help than myself however are you aware that there is a model HACCP plan and related hygiene docs for a packaging system downloadable on this site -

http://www.saferpak....hp?showtopic=83

Rgds / Charles.C

Dear Peter,

My guess is that Simon or some other packaging guru will be of more direct help than myself however are you aware that there is a model HACCP plan and related hygiene docs for a packaging system downloadable on this site -

http://www.saferpak....hp?showtopic=83

Rgds / Charles.C

Hi Charles,

Thank you very mch for your reply, i still have issues in that the products we supply for are in themselves contained environments, such as sealed jars or cans. Do we (as a company) need to apply hygiene, microbiological, hair, jewelry and the such like to our HACCP.

I have been looking at Lauras comments for her packaging outline, wehreby she uses Frequency Guidelines, Severity Guidelines and Detection Guidelines, much in the same way you have Likelihood and Severity.

So to round it up, how in depth does a label printing company need to go to justify and risk asses an HACCP, when no contamination can occur as we have no direct contact with the food.

The biggest critical control point we focus on is not mixing labels within a pack of a thousand, otherwise cans would be labeled incorrectly - leading to a product recall, but not actually reducing the quality of the food.

Cheers

Pete

Do we (as a company) need to apply hygiene, microbiological, hair, jewelry and the such like to our HACCP.

Hi Peter.

The short answer to your first question is yes you do, insofar as you must consider them as possible hazards and use the HACCP methodology to determine if they do pose a risk to your product safety, from what you say it sounds as though they may not but the whole point of HACCP is that you look at your process. Of course you know your own process but carrying out a risk analysis can be an eye opener when carried out within the terms of reference of a HACCP study.

Now you have already mentioned the dilema faced by packaging producers everywhere ! All the available literature and training courses on HACCP do refer to food safety as this is what HACCP was designed for However although they mention food specific things such as cooking/chilling times etc they do provide instruction on the application of the HACCP methodology which is the widely accepted way of meeting the BRC/IOP requirement for a hazard management system.

However the good news is that the methodology for HACCP is structured so it can be applied to pretty much any product, the difference being the hazards associated with the product. The important thing is to embark on the HACCP study with no preconceptions that you have no risk to your product safety, if you complete it with no CCP's then that is fine, the journey is as important as the destination and you can demonstrate that you have assesed the possible risk.

From my own experience of auditing our label printers I would say that knife blades are one important area to address.

Best of luck with it, it can be daunting to get to grips with BRC/IOP, feel free to ask away

Duanting is a word we have all become accustomed to, and thank you very much for your help. No doubt i will be contacting the forum again in the coming days as the HACCP progresses!
Until then i salute you all!!!

Hi Peter,

We have our printing department also certified under BRC IoP.
It is printing of tubing and occasionally film.
Please put your questions on this forum.

Remember to share good fortune with your friends, okido

Hi Peter,

We have our printing department also certified under BRC IoP.
It is printing of tubing and occasionally film.
Please put your questions on this forum.

Remember to share good fortune with your friends, okido

Hi Okido,

Sorry which forum will that be?

Pete

Hi Peter,

If you've not already got, get yourself a copy of the BRC/IOP Standard.

http://www.tsoshop.c...ctId=0117022225

There are two sets (levels) of requirements for category A & B suppliers. Category B is for direct food contact suppliers and the less demanding requirements is for Category A which you probably are. If you implement the requirements you probably won't identify any additional required procedures or controls through the HACCP study, except as you say for mixed labelling.

The standard is written in plain language, but if there is anything (and I mean anything) you need to ask on the Standard or HACCP please feel free.

Thanks to everyone for your comments and kind offers of assistance.

Regards,
Simon

Hi Peter,

If you've not already got, get yourself a copy of the BRC/IOP Standard.

http://www.tsoshop.c...ctId=0117022225

There are two sets (levels) of requirements for category A & B suppliers. Category B is for direct food contact suppliers and the less demanding requirements is for Category A which you probably are. If you implement the requirements you probably won't identify any additional required procedures or controls through the HACCP study, except as you say for mixed labelling.

The standard is written in plain language, but if there is anything (and I mean anything) you need to ask on the Standard or HACCP please feel free.

Thanks to everyone for your comments and kind offers of assistance.

Regards,
Simon

Hi Peter,

Perhaps you could post your process flow (If and when completed) I'm sure quite a few people will give views / directions.

Regards,

Steve

Hi Peter,

I meant this saferpak or IFSQN forum.

Okido

Hi Peter,

To be a bit more specific about HACCP for printing you could think about:
Solvent migration, solvent retention, label glue migration, ink bleeding or rubb off, ink blocking, ink rest's.

Remember to share good fortune with your friends , Okido