HACCP for Packaging Materials

Not being very familiar with Haccp, a client has just asked us the following question:

« one of our customers who asked whether there are recycled materials used in the product that we supply and if so whether these materials are identified on the HACCP flow diagram as input. Would you have any experience with this type of inquiry and how best to respond if we propose the use of a recycled paper grade.

We make kraft packaging paper and our client makes bags for the food industry, his client is in the food industry.

So the question is do you list the packaging ingredients in the HACCP flow diagram?

Thank you very much in advance!

Tamale

Sorry, don't know much about packaging, but have been asking cardboard suppliers questions about recycled materials ever since this story broke..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12663183

Not quite sure if the risk would be considered as part of the HACCP plan or as part of your pre-requisite for purchasing. Possibly would depend on the angle your customer is coming from.

Hi Tamale, as far as I know, the packaging has to be part of the HACCP risk assessment, in that you also have to break it down in the four categories: allergen, chemical, miocrobiological and physical, so according to that the risk can be assessed.

Idolene

Sorry, don't know much about packaging, but have been asking cardboard suppliers questions about recycled materials ever since this story broke..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12663183

Not quite sure if the risk would be considered as part of the HACCP plan or as part of your pre-requisite for purchasing. Possibly would depend on the angle your customer is coming from.

Thanks for the reply Shea Quay. Excellent article by the way.

As far as your cardboard suppliers go, the main source of mineral oil in recycled paper are newspapers. The best source for making board is occ (old corrugated containers) corrugated is never printed much and when it is it is with water based inks.

Question your suppliers on the source of there raw material and if it contains newspapers, begin insisting that they use cleaner sources.

We do not use newspaper of any king but only occ and our papers are safe. (regularly tested by third party labs)

Tamale

Hi Tamale, as far as I know, the packaging has to be part of the HACCP risk assessment, in that you also have to break it down in the four categories: allergen, chemical, miocrobiological and physical, so according to that the risk can be assessed.

Idolene

Idolene, would you know if the paper supplier would be obligated to disclose the papers ingredients?

Tamale

Idolene, would you know if the paper supplier would be obligated to disclose the papers ingredients?

Tamale

Hi Tamale,

I am in the same industry and am facing excatly the same questions. As a corrugate box manufacturer, firstly I need to establish whether my corrugate container is serving as a primary/ secondary or tertiary packaging to my customer. once this is established, it is easy to assess what type of material will be use to make the box, this spec will appear on my works order, and need not appaer on the actual HACCP plan.

We have done the HACCP flow chart for each process. on the left of the process we have identified all the inputs (raw material / inks/ glue / specs/ stereos/ tooling etc) and on the right of the chart the outputs (WIP / waste / effluent / FG).when doing your risk analysis you will identify direct and indirect food grade customers requirements and address their requirements through verification of your specs/ works orders. I am assuming you work fo a kraft paper mill. We request the paper mills to give us coc's, technical data sheets and aks them for their chemical and recycle contenet breakdowns. you will have to include the grades of waste and chemicals/ additives as your input and coc's/ tests analsyis as an output. Most mills comply with EU standards and have the required tests results. Where you are supplying food grade board you will have to get the mill to breakdown the grade of recycled waste (k1 /k2/ k3) and the legal % of recycle content accepted within your country, to produce the paper.

hope this helps.