Special Care for Food Grade Logistics
Food Grade November 9, 2009
Food grade logistics require a unique set of standards to ensure health and safety for the end consumer of your product. In selecting a third party warehousing supplier for your food products, it is important to be aware of these standards and what your 3pl is doing to meet and exceed them.
The majority of food grade storage facilities adhere to the key requirements for Good Manufacturing Practices, or GMP, as well as Good Hygiene Practices (GHP) and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HAACP). These practices are implemented to ensure a high level of quality assurance and to avoid any contamination or defect that can be observed on any food grade product at any stage of manufacturing, production, or warehousing and transportation.
Key Procedures for Food Grade Logistics
At every stage of the process from manufacturing to outsourcing your food grade storage, quality assurance and control checks must be carried out according to detailed standard operating procedures (SOP). These procedures clearly identify the types of defects or contamination that can exist and the acceptable limits for them. They also indicate who is responsible for these checks at each stage and the set times and overall frequency.
McKenna's 4 Principles for Food Grade Logistics:
- Pest Control: Pest control substances are placed around the outside of the food grade storage perimeter to eliminate the presence of rodents, insects, ants, birds, and animals. Each quarter, detailed inspections check for any evidence of infestation and the results are recorded in a log book to track the number of times the traps and substances have been changed.
- Master Sanitation Schedule: Housekeeping and cleaning are scheduled and documented. The food grade storage facility is clean and tidy at all times, from the furniture to the floor. Records of cleaning must be readily available.
- Personal Hygiene and Training Program: Employees working in a food grade storage facility must at all times wash their hands with soaps in specified hand sinks, which are equipped with hygienic drying devices. A record of employee training in quality awareness, personal hygiene, food safety, traceability, incident and crisis management is required and updated. Temporary staff must also be trained.
- Lot Traceability: The food grade logistics operation unit is responsible for tracing lot and date codes on products and for ensuring that they are rotated on a FIFO (first in, first out) basis. The warehouse unit must also be aware at all times of which materials are stored or have been delivered or dispatched.
These food grade logistics processes allow for any defects to be reported so that action can be taken to prevent contaminated food products from reaching the consumer
Contact us today for more information about our food grade logistics and other food grade storage solutions.
