5 replies to this topic

[suhaibalbadawi97]

Hello IFSQN members,

I work in a warehousing company, and my organization is certified in FSSC. I have a question about handling customer complaints.

If a complaint from a customer is related to product packaging failure, unclear labeling, or product leakage, are these issues considered quality-related?
Should I treat such complaints as non-conformances?

B.R

[TimG]

Hello suhaibalbadawi.

Are you looking to create a new procedure for complaint handling? If not and you have been running FSSC 22000 for a while, have you checked your written complaint management procedure/program?

I am not extremely familiar with FSSC 22000, so someone who is familiar with it might be able to expound on this. For SQF, also a GFSI food safety scheme you would be required to have a written complaint management procedure. It would need to include the methods and responsibilities for handling complaints, it would have to outline record keeping and escalation, and to answer your question about non-conformances, with SQF it very well could result in a NC depending on the 'seriousness' of the complaint and your findings post investigation.

[suhaibalbadawi97]

Yes I have a complaints handling system
where valid complaints are dealt with by a non-conformity product.
But this is tiring.
What is the SQF requirement you are talking about and can it be applied?

[Tony-C]

Hi suhaibalbadawi97,

 

If your complaint investigation concludes that the complaints are genuine then they should be recorded as non-conformities.

 

For the FSSC 22000 Certification Scheme we need to look at ISO 22000 Section 8.9 Control of product and process nonconformities

8.9.3 Corrective actions

The need for corrective actions shall be evaluated when critical limits at CCP(s) and/or action criteria for OPRPs are not met.

The organization shall establish and maintain documented information that specifies appropriate actions to identify and eliminate the cause of detected nonconformities, to prevent recurrence, and to return the process to control after a nonconformity is identified.

These actions shall include:

a) reviewing nonconformities identified by customer and/or consumer complaints and/or regulatory inspection reports;

b) reviewing trends in monitoring results that can indicate loss of control;

c) determining the cause(s) of nonconformities;

d) determining and implementing actions to ensure that nonconformities do not recur;

e) documenting the results of corrective actions taken;

f) verifying corrective actions taken to ensure that they are effective.

The organization shall retain documented information on all corrective actions.

 

Your complaints of product packaging failure, unclear labelling, or product leakage could be food safety related but even if you regarded them as quality related they would still be relevant to the FSSC 22000 Certification Scheme, Additional requirements includes 2.5.9 QUALITY CONTROL and you are required to: ‘Establish, implement and maintain quality parameters in line with finished product specifications, for all products and/or product groups within the scope of certification’.

 

If the complaints are due to damage and the paperwork for NCNs going into overload then you may want to consider treating them differently, have a return and replace policy, keep a log and investigate when there is an adverse trend in the amount of product damages. Or even grouping similar complaints and investigating them jointly.

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony

[GMO]

Sorry not related to FSSC per se but working with other quality / food safety systems, it's entirely valid to investigate and focus on trends of complaints.  You don't have to investigate and do a CA/PA on each one if that's your concern?

 

How I've tended to run this in FSQMS is to have a team focused on complaints reduction.  Any complaints coming in which are significant, i.e. food safety risks or significant adverse trends then get traced by one of the team and go into this group to investigate.  They then also look for long term significant complaints even if it's not an adverse trend and do some root cause analysis on them with an improvement plan.  So it's not every complaint they investigate, just the biggies and then stratifying the data following lean principles to target effort where reward is likely to be the greatest.

[suhaibalbadawi97]

I think I have deduced some solutions from your answers, and after searching the forum,
I am looking forward to establishing rules for handling complaints related to product quality, I will not consider them as non-conformities unless they are repeated five times in a month.
However, for complaints related to food safety, I will classify them as non-conformities immediately.

Is what I am doing correct, or is it possible that the auditor will object to it?