Organic Audit: Mass balance audits

Hello all, 

I have a dumb question... do mass balance audits (raw and finished product) trace back all ingredients including packaging? or is the scope only on one ingredient we select?

We are a dairy manufacturing plant, have been doing regular mock recalls regularly where we trace everything, but this mass balance is throwing me off...our finished products generally have: milk, vitamins, dry milk powder

anyone have an example they can share?

Thank you!

A mass balance is different in that you need to account for 100% of EVERYTHING in said batch, as oppose to a trace exercise which is only 1 step back/forward

for an organic mass balance, you need to ensure that you can show ONLY organic ingredients were used, which is why these certifiers ask for mass balance, not a simple trace

So take a single lot of organic dry milk powder----------can you account for every pound

and take a lot of finished goods, can you ensure that ALL the inputs align with the volume of finished goods produced (batch records etc)

The mass balance is generally in the scope of one ingredient and the usage in a give time period.   An auditor will pick one of your organic ingredients and a few to several months of usage, including received materials, starting, and ending inventory in the time frame, and all quantities used of the material in your process.  Minus waste all your inputs, should match quantities used in your process, and match to inventory levels.  Of course, most traceability systems also track other ingredients and packaging, however organic audits focus on one input as proof of organic material usage.    

Thank you for the clarification!

also, since we make multiple labels of the same product, should we differentiate label? or just go by all the product produced with the same formula?

Hello all, 

I have a dumb question... do mass balance audits (raw and finished product) trace back all ingredients including packaging? or is the scope only on one ingredient we select?

We are a dairy manufacturing plant, have been doing regular mock recalls regularly where we trace everything, but this mass balance is throwing me off...our finished products generally have: milk, vitamins, dry milk powder

 

anyone have an example they can share?

 

Thank you!

Hi there,

i also work at organic facility and i have struggled with mass balance because i had never done it prior to the time when i actually did it but it is simple.

1. Auditor picks any food ingredient in my case auditor asked what's widely used ingredient : xyz, then lets do mass balance on that.

2. the auditor will pick time frame for conducting mass balance,

3. which will include received material, starting, & ending inventory in the stated time frame, and all quantities used of the food ingredient in your process. 

4. Waste should be accounted for

5. sales

6. loss/shrink

 i made sop for my successor and i'm sharing a file which will make your life easy (basically how to calculate, the formulas, the works, etc,.)

let me know if you have any questions 

Thank you all for your help!!

Hi guys,

on the finished product side of this mock, since we produce multiple labels of the same thing in the same process, do we differentiate label or include all products produced in that process? ie. 1% milk of multiple labels, we basically just switch labels on the filler and keep going until we are done with what we made in the silo...

Hello, what is the acceptable range of completion for mass/balance? for our regular traceback, we are expected to have above 98% recovery, not sure on what is the cutoff on mass-balance?

Thank you so much!