Food and beverage
Food manufacturing and packaging
Raw materials, packaging and customer audits in one case file.
Food manufacturing carries three documentary demands usually handled separately that are really one case file: food safety, packaging, and whatever the customer asks for when they are a large chain.
The three modules, by block
| Block | Module | What moves |
|---|---|---|
| Supplier approval | Trackline | Technical sheets, health certificates, allergen declarations |
| Food contact materials | Trackline | Packaging declaration of conformity, per reference |
| Quality agreements with suppliers | Consigne | Specifications signed, not merely agreed by email |
| Process and control records | SmartCheck | Certifying the periodic register, with a third-party date |
Important
The packaging declaration of conformity is held by your supplier and the duty to hold it is usually yours. It is the document most asked for in customer audits and the one most often missing, because nobody requested it when the packaging was approved.
Frameworks cited
Food hygiene and self-control systems, food traceability, consumer information and allergens, food contact materials, and the private certification schemes retailers require. What applies to your activity and to what extent is confirmed by your adviser or certification body.
Watch out
Health certificates and approvals expire. A supplier who was approved when you bought and stopped being so three months later is exactly what surfaces in a recall, with dates attached.
Worth knowing
If a large customer audits you annually, build their questionnaire as a process. What they ask changes little, and the second time costs an afternoon instead of a week.
›Can it be queried by batch?
If the batch is linked to the supplier's case, yes, and that is what narrows a recall.
›What about my suppliers' suppliers?
Requested inside your direct supplier's case, as further documentation.
›Does it help with an unannounced audit?
That is where it shows most: you show it, you do not search for it.
A real case
The situation
A packer is audited by a customer and asked for conformity declarations on twelve packaging references.
What you do
- Finds four; the other eight were never requested
- Requests them from packaging suppliers and marks them with expiry
What you get
The next audit is answered by showing, and the declarations renew themselves annually.
The situation
A client audit arrives with two weeks' notice.
What you do
- Checks what is missing per supplier before it lands
What you get
The gaps close with time to spare.
The situation
Packaging documentation sits apart from raw materials.
What you do
- Gathers everything in the product's file
What you get
There is one picture of the product.
The situation
An ingredient changes and the labels stay the same.
What you do
- Reviews the affected references when the change arrives
What you get
The label keeps telling the truth.
The situation
A client asks for the traceability of a specific batch.
What you do
- Checks that batch's file
What you get
You answer per batch rather than per catalogue.
The situation
Every audit is prepared from scratch.
What you do
- Keeps the file current through the year
What you get
The second audit costs a fraction.
This article answers
- raw material supplier documentation
- food safety technical data sheets
- ifs brc audit documentation
- food contact materials