Audit Checklist

Hi All

Am curently preparing for an upcoming audit by a prospective customer. My product is Fresh fish to stock the counters of a large retail chain.
Raw material specification - is this simply a description of the fish itself as that is the primary raw material ...would sincerely appreciate some guidance on this....thank you .Am bit confused

Valb

Hi All

Am curently preparing for an upcoming audit by a prospective customer. My product is Fresh fish to stock the counters of a large retail chain.
Raw material specification - is this simply a description of the fish itself as that is the primary raw material ...would sincerely appreciate some guidance on this....thank you .Am bit confused

Valb

I'm no expert on fresh fish Val. Until an expert stops by I would say as well as covering the attributes of the fish the specification should also include any added ingredients, storage and handling conditions and the packaging. Have you considered these types of things?

Welcome to the forums Val.

Regards,
Simon

Dear Val,

I guess yr customer is interested in the process whereby (a) you initially purchase the fish plus (b) what you do with it up to selling point.
The first refers to the (presumably) mutually agreed standard which applies to yr purchasing of the fish raw material, ie all the regulatory / non-regulatory quality requirements which are required to be satisfied when you receive the fish. This will obviously vary depending on type of fish, where you are, origin of fish, yr specific demands, etc.
The second may include the requirements whereby you ensure the overall product quality etc at your selling point. I would assume these requirements are set by you / yr customer.
Typically I would guess yr query refers to (a) above but …..
As I’m sure you know some people use reference standards like Codex as the basics for contract (and subsequent handling), others use their own versions. I guess you have these already so no need to elaborate ? At one time buying raw fish was a relatively simple business, eg health certificates stating microbiologically fit for human consumption but consumer demands + HACCP etc changed all that.
Hope this helps, more detail is available if required.

Rgds / Charles.C

Raw material specification - is this simply a description of the fish itself as that is the primary raw material ...would sincerely appreciate some guidance on this....thank you .Am bit confused

For some info on fish specifications see the FAO website Fish quality and Fish quality 2.

I haven't dealt with fish since I was at college and then we used the "Torry Fish Freshness Scale". A quick search of the internet seems to show that it is still used, even though it was developed in 1953, but other methods may have overtaken it.

Cheers

Very nice links, Yorkshire.
I never knew any of the famous Torry Advisory Notes” were available on line. Although getting old ( I noticed the 1971 link no mention of HACCP) they contain a wealth of knowledge of the fish industry. 83 items apparently freely dwl at –
http://www.fao.org/d...e...&sortorder=

The Americans and Canadians are also particularly generous at putting prescriptive seafood QC documents on line, for a quick idea of a standard mix, I extracted this -

4.8 Inspection Requirements
4.8.1 Testing Requirements
4.8.1.1 Standard Tests
Fish products are subject to the following tests to determine compliance with Canadian requirements:
a) Labelling evaluation - examination of the label, packaging and code markings.
b) Net Content evaluation - examination of the product weight to evaluate conformity to all weight declarations (e.g., net and/or drained weight, including fluid measure where applicable).
c) Sensory evaluation - product examination to evaluate sensory and physical compliance to quality standards for taint (rancid or abnormal), decomposition, foreign matter, undesirable parts and parasites, and to evaluate conformity to all other content declarations such as style, count, composition, etc.
4.8.1.2 Specialised Tests
Imports of fish products are subject to specialised testing to determine compliance with Canadian requirements regarding bacteriological and/or chemical hazards and fraudulent practices. Table 3 of Appendix A identifies the bacteriological and/or chemical hazards associated with a product type. Specialised testing includes the following tests:
a) Bacteriological testing - product testing for pathogenic organisms such as E. coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella sp., and Staphylococcus aureus in fish products.
b) Chemical analyses - product testing for chemical contaminants such as toxic elements, pesticides, industrial chemicals and drug residues in fish products.
c) Composition analyses - product testing regarding ingredients and additives.
d) Natural Toxin analyses - product testing regarding natural toxins such as histamine, paralytic shellfish poison, domoic acid and other biotoxins such as ciguatoxin, okadaic acid and tetramine.
e) Safety Parameter testing - analyses to determine that fish packed in containers sealed to exclude air and which do not depend solely on heat sterilization, freezing or refrigeration for safety have adequate pH and/or water activity and/or water phase salt to ensure product safety.
f) Container integrity evaluation - examination of the hermetically sealed containers to determine their integrity.
g) Other - Specialised testing done as part of an investigation or special project. For example, swollen cans may undergo testing for sterility, and monitoring of products from countries where commercially harvested fish may be exposed to additional chemical or microbiological contamination which are not normally subject to testing.
The link is –

http://www.inspectio...chap3su1e.shtml

More detail on the sensory is at –

http://www.inspectio...chap3su3e.shtml

(I have noted that these Canadian URL’s have a habit of changing quite often although the material is still there – to avoid hotlinking ?!)

Rgds / Charles.C

thanks for all the links and info! Have better understanding now of what is required!
vbutler