Posted 21 September 2004 - 11:18 AM
Dear Narongchai
Sorry for the delay in responding but I am rather busy at work so don't have as much time to check posts (or contribute ) lately.
This clause cause some debate during our pre-audit* because some of our unprocessed raw materials have alot shorter shelf life than the finished product. We decided that there was not much benefit to us in keeping samples of raw materials and decided to just retain samples of all finished products (up until the end of shelf life). We did however request that all raw materials suppliers retain a sample of batches sent to us. We have tested that this system works by recalling some samples during a traceability exercise.
We did not get a non conformance for this as it does not state where the samples should be stored.
This method saves us alot of work which would likely to be wasted effort.
In the case of canning fresh vegetables you must keep a sample of the finished product (start collecting now if you don't already as the auditor will want to see some proof you are doing it). With the raw vegetables I would argue that it is not worth considering as the raw material would be off in a week. Maybe you could keep a weeks worth of samples?
Let me know what you think.
* If you can go for a pre audit. You will be able to discuss issues such as this in a more open manner than if it is the actual audit.
Regards
Yorkshire
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