Week 34 Traceability - We’ve got SALSA Sussed..!

We’ve got SALSA Sussed..!

Week 34 Traceability

Traceability – this is very important for every business to get right. Why is it so important? Because, if you have a problem with a contaminated Finished Product, you have to Trace the Product, Recall it and get it back out of the Supply Chain. All this costs time, trouble and money, so Traceability needs to be efficient.

There are many ways to tackle Traceability. I am going to show you, what I call the ‘Keep it Simple’ method, the 3 Steps to Traceability.

Ingredient Traceability

You need to be able to Trace the Ingredients used in the Finished Product. This is so that if you or your supplier finds an issue with the Ingredient, you can find out the batch number of the Ingredient concerned. This element of traceability starts at Goods In and flows into Production Traceability. You will need to know which Finished products you used the Ingredient in.

Finished Product Traceability Coding

Applying a Batch Code to your Finished Product means that when it leaves the building, you have the ability to find which customers it has been sent to, so that you can alert them in cases of contamination, if necessary. The customer or consumer will have the ability to determine if they have the contaminated product by means of checking the batch numbers on the product they have received. You need to know who you have dispatched each batch to using a Dispatch Traceability method.

 

Let’s check out how to tackle this one!

What’s coming next…

Week 35 Traceability Testing & Claims

 

Traceability - what do you need to show your SALSA auditor?

Traceability Procedure

Goods In Record

Production Traceability Record

Dispatch Record

 

Traceability Procedure

The Traceability Procedure needs to state how your business controls Traceability. Break it down in to 3 Steps, and describe what you do for each. They are:

1.       Goods In

2.       Production

3.       Dispatch

 

Goods In

Your Goods In Procedure & Record, as we discussed in ‘Week 13 Goods In’, is the start of your Traceability.

 

This is where you will record the Batch Numbers of the ingredients being supplied to you. This Batch Number is the suppliers’ Traceability Number. Goods In checks are a confirmation that when the ingredients arrived, they were all checked as per the ‘Goods In Procedure’ and accepted into your business.

 

As discussed in Week 13’s Blog, you should either record the Batch Number next to each individual Ingredient on the Goods In Record, or, you will record the Delivery Note Number on the Goods In Record (for where you have large deliveries) and write on the Batch Numbers of each Ingredient next to them on the Delivery Note. This is to evidence they have all been inspected correctly.

 

Production Traceability

This element of Traceability was discussed in ‘Week 8 Process Control’ where we discussed how to record Ingredients Batch Codes when weighing up the ingredients going into a recipe. See the example below:

 

You can pre-populate the recipe information upfront with the required ingredients to be used, to save time. There might be a lot more ingredients in your recipes than the example record above!  Then the record will need the Batch Number and ‘Use By / Best Before’ date of the Ingredient writing in, as the ingredients are weighed.

 

Do Not forget the Food Contact Packaging Batch Codes as well. Yes, you also need to record those too! The supplier of your Food Contact Packaging may also get in touch with you and state they have a contamination issue with their packaging, such as chemical contamination, which would also mean Recalling the Finished Product from the supply chain.

 

All other necessary checks could be added to the record, as required, so that it is a full product journey for the batch you are making. Cooking temperatures, CCP’s, weight checks, label checks etc. It’s a great way to complete your Production Traceability. Tried and tested with many of my clients, I have designed many Production Traceability Records to fit their products exactly. These have worked very well, so if you need assistance in setting this up, please give me a shout.

 

Application of Traceability Batch Codes

Once you have packed your Finished Product you need to Label & Code it. Coding comes in two forms, the Shelf-Life Coding (Best Before / Use By), and Batch Coding.

 

Some businesses use Production Dates for their Batch Codes, but I feel as though consumers may confuse them with the Shelf-Life Coding applied, so I try and steer away from that method.

 

The simplest form of Batch Coding, I believe, is by using a Julian Calendar. Here is an example of a Julian Calendar below:

Basically, each day of the year is assigned a number. The 1^st Jan is 001 and the 31^st Dec is 365. You would apply the 3-digit batch code according to the day of the year. If you use this method, you can trace your product to the day it was produced and retrieve all of the relevant paperwork for traceability purposes.

Dispatch Traceability Recording

You need to record the Batch Numbers of the products leaving the building, so that you know which customers have received which batch. This is a lot easier for some businesses than others.

 

Method 1 is if you are dispatching larger quantities such as pallet loads, and Method 2 is if you are dispatching several smaller quantities.

 

Method 1

If you are dispatching larger quantities of product to other businesses or retailers, then using a Dispatch Record, such as the example below is advised. You can write in the Batch Number(s) in the relevant column, so you know which Batch or Batches they have received.

DATE	CUSTOMER	PRODUCT	QUANTITY	BATCH CODE	VEHICLE CLEAN? Y/N	VEHICLE FREE FROM CONTAMINATION? Y/N	VEHICLE TEMP ºC	INITIAL

 

Method 2

If you have many small customers, such as if you are selling direct to the consumer, then the above Method 1 would be too onerous of a task. The example below shows a weekly record you could have on a clipboard in your storage area, ready for the Pickers & Packers to mark down the batches of each product they are sending out each day.

 

 

If you were to have to enact a Recall, as you found a product had been contaminated, you would cross check the affected Batch Number against the Dispatch Traceability Record and find out on which days it had been sent. You would have to cross check the dates with the Customer Orders sent. Then once you have cross checked the information, you would know who to contact to alert them, and inform them to discard the contaminated product. Obviously, you would have to keep a record of all of your Customer Orders and Delivery Dates or Delivery Notes, so that you can find who to contact.

 

If you use Method 2, you also have to carry out Vehicle Dispatch Checks like in Method 1. However, the form is easier to complete, as you do not need to list all products, quantities and batch numbers, but you do need to complete the vehicle cleanliness and temperature checks.

 

DATE	VEHICLE REG	VEHICLE CLEAN?Y/N	VEHICLE FREE FROM CONTAMINATION & PESTS? Y/N	VEHICLE TEMPºC	INITIAL

 

Please refer to SALSA Sussed Week 23 Distribution & Storage Control for all other dispatching requirements we discussed.

 

As always, I am more than happy to answer any food safety related questions, whether they are SALSA related or not. Get in touch!

 

Be careful and stay safe!

 

Ruth

Ruthshawconsultingltd@gmail.com 

07732 966 836

www.ruthshawfoodsafety.co.uk