Brand owners will not share raw material details
Dear all,
I am newbie in food Industry. Right now, i am working at toll manufacturing beverage industry ( we produce other company's brand and sell to them). When i came to this company, the top management and customer (brand owner) make a contract that all raw materials are the secret of brand owner. So, the brand owner always re-label and rename the raw materials. In other word, we dont have any idea about that raw materials.
Now, i have to deal with HACCP. In hazard analysis of materials, i cant do anything except for material which are common (like tea leaves, sugar ).
We try to ask them to provide the data, but they decline our request (even though we only ask about the chemical and biological characteristics, not name and supplier of materials ).
This year also the first time our company plan to apply for FSSC 22000.
Does anyone has same problem with me? How do you overcome this problem?
Can you elaborate on how your raw materials are labelled when they arrive?
Are you actually "selling" the product back or are you simply being paid to manufacture? This may have an impact on your requirement
Dear all,
I am newbie in food Industry. Right now, i am working at toll manufacturing beverage industry ( we produce other company's brand and sell to them). When i came to this company, the top management and customer (brand owner) make a contract that all raw materials are the secret of brand owner. So, the brand owner always re-label and rename the raw materials. In other word, we dont have any idea about that raw materials.
Now, i have to deal with HACCP. In hazard analysis of materials, i cant do anything except for material which are common (like tea leaves, sugar ).
We try to ask them to provide the data, but they decline our request (even though we only ask about the chemical and biological characteristics, not name and supplier of materials ).
This year also the first time our company plan to apply for FSSC 22000.
Does anyone has same problem with me? How do you overcome this problem?
Hi Lurah11,
That's a tough one. I know that GFSI has started moving towards making it known the last manufacturer of a given material, especially if you're getting from a broker or distributor. We don't often run into this issue, but even if the vendor won't tell you who the manufacturer of the material is, they should be able to provide you with information at the very least on their own vendor letterhead. That way you get the information you need, without them actually disclosing where they get the material from. It really should be your right to have information about product you use in your facility.
QAGB
At minimum, maybe have them do a blinded specification that just contains pertinent food safety information such as:
Is this shelf stable
What is the shelf life
Is it free of allergens or have any allergens
Does the supplier guarantee it to be pathogen free
Dear all, thanks for the reply :
To Scampi :
We sell back the products to brand owner, the product distribution will be handled by brand owner
To QAGB and FurFarmandFork :
Yeah, i try to ask this blinded specification, but they reply " we will guarantee the compliance of our raw materials using statement letter ". Do you think this kind of letter gonna work at FSSC 22000 audit?
Thank you very much
Rgds
Lurah11
Dear all, thanks for the reply :
To Scampi :
We sell back the products to brand owner, the product distribution will be handled by brand owner
To QAGB and FurFarmandFork :
Yeah, i try to ask this blinded specification, but they reply " we will guarantee the compliance of our raw materials using statement letter ". Do you think this kind of letter gonna work at FSSC 22000 audit?
Thank you very much
Rgds
Lurah11
Hi Lurah,
I can't really speak for FSSC 22000, but being that it is also a GFSI standard, I find it somewhat difficult to fathom the Letter of Guarantee alone would suffice.
QAGB
Hi,
I would say if you are producing for your customer and are not purchasing the material itself your supplier of the material (brand owners) have to make sure they are buying the correct material.
You are effectively only packing their material and as such the onus is on them as a company to make sure the product complies, as long as you have specifications/HACCP in place.
Regarding your HACCP onsite, you must only be able to carry out HACCP against your process and as you have little information regarding the product - this would be added as a prerequisite on your flow from your brand owner.
Otherwise add a mention in your Scope of the HACCP or supplier approval that the fact due to the nature of the business and confidentiality that you cannot have this information, but suppliers used are approved by brand owner and are (audited/ approved, how ever they are approved)
another option I have seen some companies instead of giving names to suppliers they give numbers - they do not tell the customer the name but the number and keep the confidential numbering system to them selves, at least then you will have traceability link from yourselves to brand customer.
Hope this makes sense.
Regards
Chris