Antibiotic failures.

[betweenthelines]

At least one of the processors I worked for never had the lab independently audited in the 10 years I was there. Local trading standards might do a random check on finished product to check BF, bacteria count etc v legal standards. but weren't interested in anything else. Usually complained about eggs being stored in the chill store though!

Come to think of it, they never checked the chill store or delivery vehicle temps records either.

 

[kiwi pom]

At least one of the processors I worked for never had the lab independently audited in the 10 years I was there. Local trading standards might do a random check on finished product to check BF, bacteria count etc v legal standards. but weren't interested in anything else. Usually complained about eggs being stored in the chill store though!

Come to think of it, they never checked the chill store or delivery vehicle temps records either.

The more I read on here about milk processors, haulage and testing the more I think the UK processing industry are a bunch of cowboys.
I've certainly no idea how they manage to have an accurate traceability system with all the milk swaps and selling of 'spot milk' etc.

The problem is when it all falls apart due to some major scare it will be the farmers that get the blame and suffer because of it.
Farms are forced to up their standards and fill in more and more paperwork but who's checking the processors are doing things right?

 

[betweenthelines]

TBF the Dairies I have worked for have mostly had reasonable standards, but outside monitoring is fairly poor, the Govt seems to leave it to the buyers to police the Dairies.

British Retail Consortium, Coop, Red Tractor etc are pussycats-give you a few day's notice of when they will turn up, don't ask awkward questions. One Coop Audit lasted about half an hour-quick walk around the bottling hall and chill store, asked a couple of staff if they were forced to work overtime and went away happy.

Tesco have a dedicated Audit team who think they are Special Branch-turn up unannounced, flash their ID's spend a couple of days going through whatever they want before they leave. Would be really impressed with the attitude to quality if it wasn't for the fact they leave chill goods in the Goods-in yard when the chillers are full!

Tesco do insist that mobile phones are banned in work areas. A few years ago phone footage of one of their meat suppliers turned up on national TV-meat dropped on the floor, picked up, given a wipe then stuck back on the packing line,no hairnets, no handwash facilities, in the packing house dirty toilets etc.

I do know of dairy companies that run unrefrigerated delivery lorries, and lots of smaller retailers store milk in unrefrigerated store rooms-temps hit 36 C in Southern England today!

 

[lazy farmer]

Our buyer as at least one audit a week from it’s buyers. They have dedicated staff for this sole purpose. They are becoming or have become extremely comprehensive. Hence the extra Scrutiny animal welfare is now getting. All areas are open to the process. That’s the price of doing business.

 

[betweenthelines]

Our buyer as at least one audit a week from it’s buyers. They have dedicated staff for this sole purpose. They are becoming or have become extremely comprehensive. Hence the extra Scrutiny animal welfare is now getting. All areas are open to the process. That’s the price of doing business.

Think you mean once a year. Once a week on multiple suppliers would take a small army.

 

[lazy farmer]

Think you mean once a year. Once a week on multiple suppliers would take a small army.

Sorry if it read wrong. They will have a different buyer come in an audit them unannounced at least once a week. I have no idea how many times a yr that buyer will audit them.

 

[Sid]

Most factories would have at least one person assigned to audits full time

 

[betweenthelines]

Most factories would have at least one person assigned to audits full time

What self-auditing?

Or do you mean a "Quality" manager?

 

[Sid]

What self-auditing?

Or do you mean a "Quality" manager?

The one to follow Tesadsburys auditors around. To make sure their boxes are ticked. You don't get no 28 days like RT

 

[betweenthelines]

No, you get a Colour coded score depending on how many major and minor NCN's are marked against you.
Blue is the top grade, followed by Yellow then Red. Our factory got a blue once (only the second in the business) Senior staff got taken out for a meal, lower ranks got a packet of crisps and a bar of chocolate!

Major Non Conformance Notice would be for something like a failure in traceability, a minor NCN would be for not having vehicle fridge maintenance records signed on the "approved" form.

You usually get 4-6 weeks to correct an NCN-no revisit, just Training Records signed by the relevant staff to confirm they know what to do. It's all just a paper chasing exercise-no random product testing or anything like that.

 

[betweenthelines]

I can recall that we once had a finished product test (ie bottled milk sample) fail it's entros test (too many bugs of several different types) The result was not known till the milk was on it's way to the customer. A control sample was then sent away to an independent lab for testing, then retested as their result was borderline. By the time it was confirmed that a Product Recall needed to be carried out it was 3 days after the milk had been delivered to store and we (about 6 managers) were sent out to covertly check if any of the product in question was still on the shop shelves. There wasn't. Nobody got ill. That we heard of.

 

[ollie989898]

Our buyer as at least one audit a week from it’s buyers. They have dedicated staff for this sole purpose. They are becoming or have become extremely comprehensive. Hence the extra Scrutiny animal welfare is now getting. All areas are open to the process. That’s the price of doing business.

I understand they were involved in selling high end milk powder to China to use in baby formula or did I just imagine that?