Should I be sampling EVERY raw material and finished product?

Should I be sampling EVERY raw material and finished product?

dear terris

just take certain number of samples from every lot as representatives. the more sample you take, the more valid result you get

regards

Should I be sampling EVERY raw material and finished product?

Hi terris,

Some details of product/process may assist advising.

Should I be sampling EVERY raw material and finished product?

Hi terris,

Sampling of raw material and finished product would normally be based on risk and history.

Regards,

Tony

Thanks for the responses. We are a chocolate manufacturer (re processor). None of our raw materials are high risk and we get a COA and/or a letter of guarantee from our suppliers. We have MANY raw materials and we have multiple processes and products that we make. Lots of inclusions...nuts, fruit, flavorings, fillings (peanut butter, caramel, etc), sprinkle, etc.

Tony-C answer the most accurate. Add to that YOUR customer requirements?

Another question - what are the samples taken for?

Retention?

QA inspection?

Micro testing?

Thanks for the responses. We are a chocolate manufacturer (re processor). None of our raw materials are high risk and we get a COA and/or a letter of guarantee from our suppliers. We have MANY raw materials and we have multiple processes and products that we make. Lots of inclusions...nuts, fruit, flavorings, fillings (peanut butter, caramel, etc), sprinkle, etc.

IMEX it usually comes down to logistics, ie dependent on available manpower, analytical requirements/resources, suppliers and relative lot input rates.

If all these items really are equal low risk as per post4, i would split into groups / suppliers where possible and then design a random, rotating sampling plan based on the handling capability with the hope of achieving an even balance per month across the range. The absolute quantity IMEX depends on a combination of all the top factors.

Just as an example, some companies do incredible volumes of micro. analysis because of customers demands, eg X hundreds / month. 1 sample can take several days. Multiple labs running round the clock. It's a business.

HI OP, in my opinion a big part of what you are asking has to do with traceability. Do you know what is coming in and what is going out, so if there is a problem you can zoom into the inputs and outputs are. If you feel your COAs are adequate, and your vendors are doing enough control and testing on their end, it might not be an issue with you. We have bulk flour brought in and have sampling daily in case we need to run a farinograph or look for contamination issues. 

When you say sampling, do you mean for quality or safety? To me sampling seems to imply a quality viewpoint for the end product, which you might want to do for assurance and peace of mind.

Thank you all again for your responses. Right now we are sampling solid raw materials for retention...in case there ever is a contamination problem we have a sample. Then some we do have micro tested as a verification of the COA's from the suppliers. We sample EVERY finished product-mostly for retention  in case of probs. We micro test one sample every other month, for verification of safety of finished product. All of our testing is safety, not quality issue for SQF level 2.Our customers have only required that we are SQF certified, so as long as we meet the code they are happy. I guess I just have to tighten up our program. Thanks again everyone...this forum is always helpful!

HI OP, in my opinion a big part of what you are asking has to do with traceability. Do you know what is coming in and what is going out, so if there is a problem you can zoom into the inputs and outputs are. If you feel your COAs are adequate, and your vendors are doing enough control and testing on their end, it might not be an issue with you. We have bulk flour brought in and have sampling daily in case we need to run a farinograph or look for contamination issues. 

 

When you say sampling, do you mean for quality or safety? To me sampling seems to imply a quality viewpoint for the end product, which you might want to do for assurance and peace of mind.

Hi adam,

I would have thought that Traceability requirements are focused on  knowledge of quantities/lot codes/massbalances/suppliers/customers ?

IMEX most (all?) factories monitor/document such activities under a microscope or go bust. Some still go bust due to the next line.

QA sampling activities often sadly come in at a lower priority, eg  the Necessary Evil tag.

Theoretically i supose haccp should delete sampling other than for validation/verification/process/GMP purposes. Customers (and due Diligence) seem to think otherwise.

PS - Welcome to the Forum

Thanks for the responses. We are a chocolate manufacturer (re processor). None of our raw materials are high risk and we get a COA and/or a letter of guarantee from our suppliers. We have MANY raw materials and we have multiple processes and products that we make. Lots of inclusions...nuts, fruit, flavorings, fillings (peanut butter, caramel, etc), sprinkle, etc.

Hi terris,

I'm by no means an expert on chocolate but in a previous role I supplied spray dried milk powder to one of the largest chocolate product manufacturers in the world and this material was regarded as high risk because there was no heat treatment in the process of manufacturing the chocolate.

Regards,

Hi ,

Actually sampling is done to assure that coming material is complying with the specifications , so generally we withdraw samples to assure that the coming material will fulfill our requirements and it does not contain any hazards .

accordingly sampling plan depends on Risk assessment for the food safety ,quality , .. depending on the process and the product , I should now first what the expected effect of the deviation accordingly I can determine the sample size and the rejection rate (you can use AQL sampling table ) .

Another parameter is the supplier confidence level , if it is approved supplier and the material risk is low , so you can make sampling for monitoring only ( e.g. each 5 consignment withdraw samples of one consignment , this is called skip sampling ) .

So not all the material is a mater of positive release ( sampling for release criteria ) , some may be for just monitoring , it depends on your history , supplier confidence level (approved suppliers ) , process / raw material risk assessment  and what is the effect of the defect on your process /product , sampling plan is case sensitive each of the previous elements affect the sample size , frequency and acceptance level . 

Best regards ,

Ehab