Internal Audit Checklist - Traceability

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Traceability of Raw materials and Packed Product

The site shall be able to trace all raw material product lots (including food contact packaging- caps and labels) from its suppliers through all stages of processing and dispatch to its customers and vice versa. Identification of raw materials, including primary packaging, processing aids, intermediate products, part used materials, finished products and materials pending investigation, shall be adequate to ensure traceability. Ensure raw material/packaging batch codes are recorded on entry to site Incoming Goods Log) , and on mix sheets. Packaging batch codes (including lids/labels) must be recorded on filling machine day sheets. All dairy ingredients purchased from an external supplier must be accompanied by a Transfer Certificate that has all required information. This includes liquid and dry components. Review filed certificates for last 6 months.
The company shall ensure that its suppliers of raw materials and primary packaging have an effective traceability system. Where a supplier has been approved based on a questionnaire, instead of certification or audit, verification of the suppliers traceability system shall be carried out on first approval and then at least every 3 years. This is a Corporate function - most suppliers are GFSI certified. Each individual raw material and its supplier must be identifiable. All raw material (including packaging) must be forward traceable through all stages of the process to a product.

Traceability - General Information:

Traceability and Mass Balance Excercise - The site shall test the traceability system across the range of product groups to ensure traceability can be determined from the supplier of raw material (including primary packaging) to the finished product and vice versa, including mass balance check. The traceability test shall include a summary of the documents that should be referenced during the test, and clearly show the links between them. The test shall occur at a predetermined frequency, at a minimum annually, and results shall be retained. Traceability should be achievable within 4 hours
Traceability of rework shall be maintained. All work in progress material must be traceable forwards and backwards
Identity Preserved, Provenance, Assured Claims on products (Organic, Lactose Free); Systems of traceability, identification, and segregation of raw materials, rework, WIP, and finished products shall be in place to ensure that all claims relating to provenance or assured status can be substantiated. Includes Organic, Lactose Free, etc. Suppliers shall conduct an annual mass balance and traceability exercise to verify the chain of custody of the identity preserved claims. Where on pack claims are made about the provenance, assured, or identity preserved, the status of each batch of raw material shall be verified and records maintained. ANNUAL MASS BALANCE/TRACEABILITY exercise FOR IDENTITY PRESERVED, PROVENANCE or assured status (e.g. Organic, Lactose Free).
Traceability of Product Claims - The supplier shall maintain traceability records to substantiate claims including: • purchasing records, • traceability of raw material usage, and • final packaging records. THE SITE SHALL UNDERTAKE AND RECORD MASS BALANCE CHECKS AT LEAST EVERY 6 MONTHS FOR ANY ON PACK CLAIMS.
All Tasty African Food Distribution Ltd. labelled finished product (including packaging) must be backwards traceable through all stages of the process to all raw materials and inputs used. All finished product must be traceable through the product distribution chain until delivered to a Tasty store or Customer centre. Do one Traceability exercise on a Tasty African Food Distribution Ltd. product annually. Can be done as part of the annual Mock Recall process.
Traceability and Mass Balance - The site must be able to demonstrate that traceability and mass balance procedures work effectively by completing traceability / mass balance challenges minimum six monthly, on raw materials, primary /food contact packaging, and finished products - includes processing aids, QA samples and product wasted or destroyed. Coles require traceability/mass balance excercises 6 monthly – on a raw material, packaging and finished product. One exercise can be done as part of the annual Mock Recall. The site should retain all records, and not just summarised outcomes, as evidence of completing traceability tests.
Approved Arrangement Checklist - The system in place at the establishment must be such that full Production Records are kept, enabling trace back to the lot of food & ingredients including: • A description of the food; • Quantity in the lot; • Unique lot identity; • Date of production; • Full details of all inputs (ingredients) • Trace back to the supplier of ingredients; and Explanation of codes and ciphers used. The auditor will check production records for completeness and where farm milk is received at the establishment, product must be able to be traced back to the tanker run/s used to produce the batch. Where re-work product is blended into a batch of product it must be traceable to its original batch. Ingredients must be traceable in both non reworked and reworked product
Supplier QMS - An annual Mock Recall using an Aldi branded product is required. This is an internal activity and supplier e.g ADES shall not be contacted. Records of Mock Recalls shall be maintained and available at audit.