17. Process control
Planning and scheduling
Planning and scheduling is a key aspect of process control, which tends to get overlooked. Here’s why it’s important for cross-contamination and packing.
Planning and scheduling
Planning and scheduling of the process is a key part of process control, however it’s one that also tends to get forgotten – probably because it doesn’t really feature in the certification standards.
In this article, we’ll look at why it’s so important.
The standards
This article is written to meet the following sections of the Standards:
| BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 | No specific requirements |
| BRCGS Packaging Issue 6 | No specific requirements |
| BRCGS Agents & Brokers Issue 3 | No specific requirements |
| BRCGS Storage & Distribution Issue 4 | No specific requirements |
| FSSC22000 Version 5.1 | No specific requirements |
| IFS Food Version 7 | No specific requirements |
| SQF Edition 9 | No specific requirements |
| Additional standards | Sainsbury’s, M&S, AIB |
The requirements
Although the certification standards allude to production planning and scheduling as an allergen control, the clauses don’t provide any specific requirements.
BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9
There are no changes in Issue 9 that impact the clauses in this article.
Customer requirements
This is a general overview of the type of planning and scheduling controls detailed in customer codes of practice, however your business must refer to your customer’s standards to identify the requirements that are applicable.
Allergen control
Planning production with allergens in mind is critical to the safety of the product. This is why customer standards have very specific requirements as to how this must be done. This includes training of the planning team, so that they understand their responsibilities for allergen control.
The plan needs to detail what allergens are in each product.
Coding control
The planning team must ensure that they provide the packing team with the information that they need to code the product. A coding schedule must be issued, so that it can be used when checking the printed coding on the line.
Promotions
Promotions must have a clear start and end date, this means that the packing team need to know at what date and time they must switch the packaging. The planning team are responsible for providing this information and managing the changeover of the promotion. This includes management of the packaging, so that it doesn’t get used by mistake.
Document control
There must be a document control procedure in place for issuing and changing the schedules.
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