Supplier refusing to extend best before dates of Raw Materials

Hello,

I have few raw materials namely : anti-oxidant powder, squid meal, soya bean meal which have exceeded their best before dates.

I verified the quality of these raw materials and found them to be conformed. Humidity tests were done and results were satisfactory.

However, suppliers are refusing to extend these dates. These raw mat costs a lot and the management has advised us to use them in production of animal feeds.

What could be the risks of using ingredients which have exceeded best before dates?

Rgds,

Rudra

Dear Rudra,

"...suppliers are refusing to extend these dates" I think they do the right thing. Extending the expiry date may classified as a food fraud (against to food labelling act), However, this doesn't necessarily mean that the very next day the product is poisonous. It's a marker to show when the food degrades to a lower quality and a potentially dangerous state.

 Avila

See, as per your depicted post it seems like if you have already done the Humidity tests and the results were  also satisfactory then I guess there is no need to worry about it, just go a head with feeding the animals.

Not knowing what your final product is, the risk is that if you used it and there were any problems then the liability is on your company.  If the supplier extends the dates then the liability can be on them.  Therefore is safer to feed them to the animals, who will enjoy the product because it is still okay and won't mishandle it and then make about the expiration dates and don't have lawyers. 

although the term "best before date" refers to the quality characteristics of the product and not their safety, however which should be considered are the features that are most affected and what would be its effect on the final product. Certainly moisture analysis is valid, since the presence of moisture, beyond that specified could accelerate many of the typical chemical reactions in foods, but other sensory indicators could also provide information about product degradation.

Dear Rudra,

i seem to remember seeing a previously similar post to this one. :smile:

As you intimated, the answer is a risk assessment.

I rather agree with post #2/5 that unless you can perhaps validate that humidity is the only relevant safety / quality parameter as far as shelf life is concerned, the risk may be not negligible.

(And especially if such an adjustment is not anyway permitted by legislation.)(?)

Rgds / Charles.C

_{Dear Charles,}

_{There is quite a similar post :-) However, I must say that in the past the management took full responsibility of using a expired raw mat (note that our company produces feeds for animals only). Prior to usage, a risk assessment was done and chemical , physical and microbiological tests were done and results were found to be satisfactory. When my external auditor came , there was a long discussion about this because its us who took full responsibility of using this expired product though tests were satisfactory.}

_{I don't want to enter an endless conversation with my auditor again this time. We have a local food act for expired products but we don't have a feed act for animals.}

_{Our management cannot afford to destroy expired products worth > 1million rupees :( . Therefore the quality dept has to handle this and its a very stressful situation.}

_{Do you think it's going to b right to :}

_{1. document all analysis done on this expired raw mat + risk analysis}

_{2. document scientific evidences for such raw materials + prove that the latter are still conformed}

_{3.analyse end products to show that they are conformed after having used expired raw mat?}

_{Best rgds,}

_rudra