Pesticide and heavy metal testing on yoghurt
Hi,
I was wondering if you could give me an advice on pesticide and heavy metal testing on finished product (yoghurt).
We are in the process of taking on a new customer (Retail). Their routine testing requirement includes pesticides and heavy metals (only if relevant for certain products).
Would it be satisfactory if I do a risk assessment including all of the raw materials and the likelihood of heavy metal/pesticide contamination, also existing controls in place? We don't want to go down the route of routine testing (6 monthly) for heavy metals and pesticides unless it is absolutely necessary.
Thank you
Ildiko
I fear that this is a question you'll need to point towards your retailer's technical team - assuring yourselves of compliance using e.g. supplier data, risk assessment, and some periodic analysis is alas often not equivalent to jumping through retailers' various hoops...
You said their (your customer) routine testing includes pesticides and heavy metal testing. To me this looks like a requirement from them to you. (is it?)
I would feel it is best for you to get together with them and see what works with both of you. Maybe they are not okay with the risk assessment? Because they already did theirs and there results indicated they require their suppliers to have those tests?
When I worked in the spice industry, I required suppliers to have heavy metal testing on their COAs (because we actually had a recall ). some would refuse telling me it was not needed. (although it was to us).
We're yogurt producers, and your customer requirements sound strange to me as I've never been asked to test our yogurts for pesticides or heavy metals. Even though, our customers are big guys like Loblaw and Sobeys who have their own vendor standards. It really is unnecessary provided you use potable water for sanitation and other processes, and don't use pesticides at your facilities. Also, it sounds reasonable to me to assess ingredient suppliers for their food safety practices/policies in terms of absence of the abovementioned substances at their facilities or processes.