Suppliers: An Essential Ingredient of Your Food Safety Plan

Choosing a reputable supplier is no small task. The safety and quality of your final food product is ultimately dependent on both the ingredients themselves and on the best practices of the supplier. Let’s take a look at some helpful recommendations for choosing the right suppliers.

Be selective based on food safety best practices.

A supplier’s food safety practices should be a metric used just as much as price to determine its viability. When measuring the value of your suppliers’ practices, be proactive:

• Hold your suppliers accountable
• Validate their accreditations
• Get to know their capabilities
• Inspect the facility where the ingredients are produced
• Request, inspect, and evaluate a sample (including temperature)

By taking the lead, you ensure that suppliers meet your standards, not theirs.

Be selective based on food safety regulations.

Be sure the supplier is following all regulatory requirements, including but not limited to:

• Good Manufacturing Practices
• Good Sanitation Practices
• Industry-appropriate pest control programs
• Efficient microbiological testing programs
• A reliable traceability and recall program

Checklist #1: Quality Assurance

Your quality assurance team should approve a supplier only if it meets the following minimum requirements:

• Registration with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
• A signed letter of guarantee stating the supplier supplies safe food within the meaning of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
• A certificate of insurance naming your company as additionally insured
• A copy of the latest third-party food safety and Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) audit report the supplier has received within the last year
• A copy of the supplier’s Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) program
• A materials safety data sheet for all chemical ingredients
• An emergency information sheet listing the individuals responsible for traceability and emergency responses

Checklist #2: Safety Specifications

A specification sheet for each supplied ingredient should include the following safety information:

• Statement of any allergens present
• Microbiological limitations where appropriate
• Shelf life of the product
• Handling and storage requirements (including temperature)
• Packaging information
• Antibiotic, antifungal, and heavy metal residue analyses
• Example of the traceability code and an explanation of how to read it

Once the vendor’s product passes all quality checks, you can feel confident that you have chosen a reputable supplier.

The Final Analysis

Choosing the right ingredient supplier may be complex, but it is critical to the success of the final product in terms of both quality and safety. To minimize the risk to your company, choose the ingredient source wisely. Then, confirm this source when it arrives and test the product to verify that it meets expectations and is safe to use. Finally, document all steps to validate your commitment to product quality and safety.

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