Week 39 Specifications - We’ve got SALSA sussed..!

We’ve got SALSA sussed..!

Week 39 Specifications

 

Manufacturing Specifications are the same thing as Recipe Specifications. They are for your staff members to follow to make sure they always make the Product using the correct ingredients, the right method and equipment, including settings.

The clearer the instructions, the more consistent your finished product will be.

Finished Product Specifications are the document you use to sell your product to your Customer.

The Finished Product Specification is an agreement between you and your customer. The agreement is that you will always make the product within the Specification Standard to ensure that it is always within ‘food safety standards’ and is of the Quality, Nature and Substance, as prescribed.

Let’s check out how to tackle this one!

What’s coming next…

Week 40 Procedures & Work Instructions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Specifications Procedure

Recipe Specifications

Finished Product Specifications

 

Specifications Procedure

Divide out your Specification Procedure into the: ‘Recipe Specifications’ that your staff members will follow, and your ‘Finished Product Specifications’ for your customers information.

 

·         Specifications need checking that they are correct for making the product and have all the necessary detail on them.

·         Finished Product Specifications can be used for cross checking that the correct information is on the label.

Version or Document Control of these documents is extremely important.

 

Recipe & Processing Specification

To ensure that your staff members have clear guidelines to follow, a clear recipe specification needs formulating for them to use when in production. When designing the Processing Document, it needs to clearly state the following items:

 

1.       Company Name

2.       Product Name

3.       Ingredients

·         Best practice is to have the Ingredients and the suppliers listed. This is helpful for when staff are trying to find the correct ingredients in storage

4.       Weights

·         Having ‘Weights Per Batch’ listed is ideal. It is NOT ideal to put more than one batch weight per Recipe Specification Sheet. This can be easily confused or mixed up with different weights or read incorrectly when adding ingredients.

5.       Method

·         This is ‘how to make it’, the actual process.

·         Having step by step instructions is the key to getting a standardised product, made by every staff member. Its unambiguous and hopefully fool proof!

6.       Equipment Settings

·         This could be the Mixer settings e.g. 2 minutes on slow, 3 minutes on fast

·         Or Oven Temperature and timings

Here is an example of how these can be set out:

COMPANY NAME:
PRODUCT NAME:
RECIPE
Ingredients	Supplier	Weight g / kg
METHOD
STEP 1:
STEP 2:
STEP 1:
STEP 4:
EQUIPMEMT SETTINGS:

Good practice would be to have one of these Recipe Specification Sheets for each product you make, laminated and in a folder ready for use in the production area.

 

Remember, if you have different batch sizes, you need to complete a Recipe Specification for each batch.

 

Also remember, that you need Version Control on these documents, as when recipes change, you do not want staff members to use the incorrect recipe.

 

Practically, you may have the Quality Attributes as a separate document (as per the example below), depending on where the quality checks will take place in your facility. The finished product may be in a separate area or room when being checked. Or, alternatively, you can just add Quality Attributes to the bottom of the Recipe Processing Specification.

 

Quality checks may involve, for example:

·         Size

·         Shape

·         Colour

·         Weight

 

PRODUCT NAME:
QUALITY ATTRIBUTES:
REJECT	ACCEPT (AMBER)	TARGET	ACCEPT (AMBER)	REJECT
Add photo	Add photo	Add photo	Add photo	Add photo

 

Finished Product Specifications

Below is a list of essential information required on the Finished Product Specification

 

1.       Company Name & Details

2.       Product Name & Legal Description

3.       Recipe: Ingredients, Percentages or Weights

4.       Person writing or issuing the Specification

5.       The version number of the Specification

6.       Nutrition

7.       Allergens

8.       Shelf Life

9.       Storage Conditions

10.   Packaging

11.   Sizes – weight / volume

12.   Micro & Chemical parameters

 

Below is an example of a Finished Product Specification. As you will come to realise, it’s a sizeable document!

 

The Finished Product Specification has all of the information about your product. It has everything you will need to produce the Finished Product Label, so is extremely useful.

 

As mentioned, it is used to agree between you and your customer, the product that you will supply.

 

Page1 is the company details and contacts of important people the customer might want to get in touch with about the product – Technical Contact.

 

COMPANY DETAILS
Company Name:
Address:
UK Licence No (if applicable):
Telephone Number:
Emergency Contact Number:
Technical Contact Name:
Technical Email Address:
Technical Phone Number:

 

DESCRIPTION OF PRODUCT
Product Name:
Legal Description:

 

RECIPE
Ingredients	%	Supplier	Country of Origin

 

INGREDIENT DECLARATION & QUID

 

Allergen Information	‘Contains’ Allergens (Yes/No)	‘May Contain’ Allergen (through cross contamination) (Yes/No)
Cereals containing gluten (wheat, barley, rye, spelt, kamut)
Peanuts
Nuts
Fish
Eggs
Crustaceans
Sesame
Milk
Soya
Celery (inc. celeriac)
Mustard
Lupin
Molluscs
Sulphites (≥10ppm)

 

SUITABILITY INFORMATION
Product is suitable for	Yes/ No
Vegetarians
Vegans
Halal
Kosher
Product is GM free?

Also, the Product Name and Description itself. This should reflect what is on the pack label.

 

The Ingredients need to be named, along with percentages at least (or weight). This is required due to the fact that your customer might need this information to QUID their ingredients on their labels, if they are using your product as an ingredient. For the same reason that your Ingredient Declaration is required.

 

Allergens, obviously super important! Ensure you have checked each and every one of your ‘Ingredient Specifications’ to ensure that you have got your ‘Finished Product Specification’ correct. Where allergens are concerned, there is no room for error!

 

Be sure about Suitability Information. Check Ingredient Specifications and ensure you are permitted to use any logo’s which promote suitability to these specific groups. Or the certification to enable you to state it.

Page 2 has the Nutritional Information. You will either calculate this from your Ingredient Specifications or have it tested at a laboratory. Per 100g/ml is essential on Pack and on the Finished Product Specification. However, the serving size is optional.

 

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
	Amount per 100g/ml	Serving Size (g/ml)
Energy Kcals*
Energy Kj*
Fat (g)*
-                      Saturates (g)*
Carbohydrate*
-                      sugars (g)*
Fibre (g)
Protein (g)*
Salt (g)*

 

 

PACKAGING & SHELF LIFE
Delivery format (pallet, case, carton):
Number of units per (pallet, case, carton):
Weight per (pallet, case, carton):
Delivery labelling (please paste in example label):
Primary packaging:
Secondary packaging:
Tertiary packaging:
Method of closure (tape, glue etc):
Pack labelling (please copy an example of the label with coding):
Traceability coding on pack:
Coding format- Best before / Use By: Examples: MM/YY DD/MM/YYYY BBE: MM/YY
Shelf Life:

 

STORAGE
Storage conditions on delivery: (Please include temperature range)
Storage conditions after opening:
Minimum life on delivery:
Shelf life after defrost:
Shelf life after opening:

 

PREPARATION

Detail any preparation Instructions (cooking/ re-heating methods etc):

Packaging is very useful information for your customers, so that they know and understand how to expect your product to be supplied to them. Weights are important information for transportation purposes.

 

Providing examples of Labelling is important, along with the Batch Code Format. This is so they can easily find batch codes to check them at Goods In, when being delivered to them. Can you remember when you have been trying to find Batch Codes on your ingredients when they are delivered? If you had a detailed specification like this, it would have been easier!

 

Storage information is important, so that the customer knows the temperatures to store the product, also, after opening it, how they must keep it to protect the Safety and Shelf Life of the product and ensure best quality.

 

Preparation instructions are essential for products which require cooking or preparing in some way. Remember these must be validated methods and within industry standards and guidelines (e.g. cooking temperatures to ensure it remains safe).

Page 3 of this example Specification has the Finished Product Standards on it. Physical standards could include things like, bone in meat, twigs or stone (fruit stones) in dried fruit, for example.

 

FINISHED PRODUCT STANDARDS
Physical
Test	Method		Specification limits	Frequency
Microbiological
Test	Method	Specification limits		Frequency
Chemical
Test	Method	Specification limits		Frequency

  

QUALITY ATTRIBUTES (please insert quality attribute description and photo where possible)
Criteria	Acceptable	Unacceptable
Texture
Visual / Appearance
Flavour / Aroma
Packaging

 

 

HACCP
CCP’s	Critical Limit	Monitoring (Procedure & Frequency)	Corrective Action Procedure

Microbiological Standards – this is the testing you will have carried out on your product. This is very specific, depending on the type of product you make. At the very least it includes TVC’s, yeasts and moulds. For other products it will depend on many things such as; the ingredients you use and the pathogens they contain, if the product is chilled, ready to eat/heat or long shelf life. Assistance with this is usually required – I can help!

 

Chemical parameters are again very specific, depending on product. If your product has pH or aW controls these should be entered here. Other chemical parameters could include heavy metals, acrylamide (e.g. baked, roasted, fried products) pesticides, aflatoxins (e.g. nuts, fruits, cereals), patulin (apples) testing. See Regulation 1881/2006:

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32006R1881&from=EN

 

Quality Attributes are all the Organoleptic Standards which you would use in your Production Quality checks. Using photos for these is a great idea, as the customer can see what the product looks like out of its packaging too.

 

A reminder of these are:

Visual: Size, shape, dimensions. Flavour, texture, colour, etc.

 

HACCP details are important, so that your customer knows what your Critical Limits are – such as Metal Detection, Sieving, Cooking and Cooling Temperatures, pH, aw.

 

Just imagine what you need to know about your Ingredients – if you had all of the CCP information on your Ingredient Specifications, how easy it would be to know and understand your ingredients fully.

 

Finally, having a section at the end of the Specification for you and your customer to sign off, the ‘Agreement’, to the supply of the Finished Product between both parties, is a good idea, and best practice. However, in reality, it is sometimes difficult to get that signature, so having an email communication of the attempt to get that signature is evidence and provides proof they have been informed.

 

One important point to note is to remember to discuss your Specifications (Recipe & Finished Product) in your HACCP Review Meetings – such as changes to the raw materials, suppliers, allergens, processing testing etc etc. Remember to close the loop with all changes you make to your products, update the Specifications and send updated versions to your customers!

 

Now, hopefully, you should be well equipped to deal with this one!

 

Please get in touch if you want to ask anything, I am here to help as always! Be careful and stay safe!

Ruth

Ruthshawconsultingltd@gmail.com 

07732 966 836

www.ruthshawfoodsafety.co.uk