Tracability from showroom floor
We are trying to streamline our show room sales process, and I've been asked to justify the need to document lot #'s on all items sold through the show room .
Our show room is in the front of our processing facility. We track lot #'s going out for bulk and online orders, and what products were put into the show room, but do we need to track customer information for items sold through our showroom?
How is our showroom different from a grocery store?
What about for clearance / discontinued items?
Hmmm... Are you guys certified under the SQF Retail Code? sqf-code_retail-ed-8-1-final-1.pdf
This version of the SQF code lessens restrictions on product trace one step forward:
2.6.2.1 The responsibility and methods used to trace product shall be documented and implemented to ensure:
i. Finished in-store prepared product and pre-packaged product is traceable to the customer and consumer when known (one stage forward) and provides traceability through the process to the supplier, agent, broker and vendor and date of receipt of products, raw materials, food contact packaging and materials and other inputs (one stage back)
So if you're open to the public and people are able to enter cash-and-carry style, you would need to track the lots going into your showroom area and it could possibly end there. In the event of a recall, it would be advisable to have a dedicated area where you physically post such notices along with putting declarations out on your websites and social medias to notify your consumer base. Depending on how good your POS is, you could request names and phone numbers from the cash clients and track the lot # through that, giving you the ability to notify them in the event of a recall. As a real-life example, I get recall notices through Costco if they detect my membership card bought a recalled item, and the same happens at my local Krogers/Smith's as I use their Rewards program with my phone number.
If your commercial account customers for bulk orders are able to come in and buy off the retail floor, I would imagine the sales are done with their PO's and subject to the normal tracking.
If you're SQF certified under the regular food manufacturing code, I think the black and white difference used in that version of 2.6.2.1 is pretty inescapable: you MUST trace the product to each customer.
2.6.2.1 The responsibility and methods used to trace product shall be documented and implemented to ensure:
i. Finished product is traceable at least one step forward to the customer and at least one step back from the process to the manufacturing supplier;
Thank you Jfrey.
We are SQF Edition 9 Food Manufacturing certified.
You are identifying the same concerns I have with traceability and needing to trace to the customer. Our POS system is cumbersome and not efficient (excel spreadsheet that we type everything into). Hence why the push to streamline and determine how to reduce the information entered. Typically, bulk customers are not buying on site, they are placing orders via phone, e-mail or website using POs.
I'll look more into the retail code - I didn't know there was a separate SQF retail code as I've only worked on the manufacturing side.
It's a sticky spot that I hadn't really considered as I've never worked for a manufacturer with direct-to-consumer sales before. I've done sites with multi-scope certifications before, and generally that's pretty easy when the required Modules are shared between the multiple scopes.
If I was looking at this from a consultant standpoint, I'd consider whether a company would want a retail "showroom" to be part of the manufacturing site scope at all. Inviting the public to enter the facility could get a sideways glance from an overzealous auditor. If you were to operate the retail side as a separate entity, it might mean two business licenses and LLC breakdown, but from a traceability standpoint it could be clean as a whistle: Manufacturing LLC sells to Showroom LLC as a legal customer, transferring or delivering stock through a shared door. On the facility map, you show the Showroom LLC area as "out of scope" from your SQF certified site. Manufacturing LLC can trace one step forward to Showroom LLC, and Showroom LLC isn't necessarily required to be SQF certified if they're compliant with local municipal retailer standards.