Hi R.H@KB,
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Welcome to the IFSQN forums.
BRCGS Global Standard for Food Safety Issue 9 clause 4.9.2.2 states:
The purchase of ingredients and packaging which use staples or other foreign-body hazards as part of the packaging materials shall be avoided.
Staples, paper clips and drawing pins shall not be used in open product areas.
Where staples or other items are present as packaging materials or closures, appropriate precautions shall be taken to minimise the risk of product contamination.
Staples in primary packaging is obviously a definite no, no. I think this clause stems from a long time ago when staples were used to seal bags of ingredients and as such, posed a major risk of contamination when debagging/deboxing.
Clearly staples are best avoided, so secondary packaging also tends to be folded & clipped or glued these days.
For your tertiary packaging, I would ask the question whether they could be supplied glued but I still think the packaging with staples is acceptable to use in a warehouse where the product is already enclosed.
There are a few areas where you could dot the i’s and cross the t’s:
A quick risk assessment of the potential for product contamination (including when de-palletised by the customer)
A check if the staples would be removed by your foreign body detection equipment.
Inspections to ensure the packaging is acceptable and the staples are not loose.
Appropriate storage of the packaging, such as wrapped and at the bottom of the racking, so that if a staple fell out it could not fall onto something which would be used in the production area.
Kind regards,
Tony