5 replies to this topic

[NorCalNate]

I was wondering what everyone is doing for monitoring their chemical inventory. Not sure if this is only applicable to food-contact chemicals, sanitizers, hazardous chemicals or all chemicals used in Production? 

 

Insights appreciated

[TimG]

I do an annual inventory on all chemicals, and keep a registry based on that. Some people are going to come in here and say that's not often enough but read your code and do your risk analysis and you determine if it's often enough.

For food contact chems, sanitation and janitorial I do weekly. I believe my PnP says 'at least monthly' but we do it weekly for ordering purposes. 

Key here is to have a list and control every chemical in your plant, period. If there are new random chemicals, you have to close that loop and figure out why people are bringing unauthorized chemicals into your food plant. 

It's also pretty nifty to use your chemical registry and have whoever is in charge of SDS's make sure they are verifying you have the current SDS on file. That's another reason to keep a complete registry.

[Mariann]

All chemicals and cleaning agents used in the production areas are listed in the chemical register. The register includes information about the point of use, the latest update date of the safety data sheet, and the required protective equipment. During production walk-throughs, we record any chemicals we observe and verify that they appear on the list. We monitor the dates of cleaning agents and food-grade maintenance chemicals, and expired products must not be used in the production area. All chemicals and cleaning agents are kept locked away during production.

[GMO]

I'm not sure I'd strictly have a "monitoring" exercise for it but I'd have chemical listings in areas where they're stored and make it clear that the people who use them and order them (e.g. engineers, sanitation) should only use from and order from these lists.  Then I'd verify via audit (monthly GMP and specific chemical systems audit which might be 1-2 times per year.)

[SHQuality]

I was wondering what everyone is doing for monitoring their chemical inventory. Not sure if this is only applicable to food-contact chemicals, sanitizers, hazardous chemicals or all chemicals used in Production? 

 

Insights appreciated

The chemical inventory applies to all the chemicals in the facility from the bleach to clean the toilets to the chemicals to clean food contact surfaces. It is important to know where they are, what they're used for and whether you have all relevant SDS documents on file. Additionally, the people ordering should not make any unannounced changes without checking with quality first and the people using the chemicals should be trained and use appropriate PPMs.

 

Chemicals that come into contact with food or that cause high risk need to be treated with extra care during your hazard analysis.

[jcieslowski]

Firstly, I store all my chemicals easily.  Chemical cage for 'plant' chemicals and cabinets in maintenance shop for 'maintenance' chemicals, and a rack in a cleaning closet for 'bathroom' cleaners.    Each of those areas has a leader or supervisor who performs inventory (and orders those chemicals).   We do get 50 gallon drums of a few chemicals.  For those, there's a sign out sheet on the chemical cage where if someone goes and removes a bucket worth they 'sign out' the chemical, so to speak.   The person doing inventory puts a mark on the drum with the chemical level and date each week so we can be aware of any big drops (and thus know we've overused or misused chemical).   Of course chemicals are on a register which I have divided by section to indicate in which of our storage locations those chemicals are.  

 

All in all, pretty smooth sailing and manageable.