[avatar user=”donaldhutton” size=”160″ align=”left”]Donald Hutton
Associate Member Conference Chair of the International Packaged Ice Association[/avatar]
Spring has finally arrived! It has been a busy winter for a lot of suppliers with several regional conventions, board meetings and the PCQI trainings put on by the IPIA. It is great to see suppliers participating in the PCQI trainings, gaining valuable information for their respective companies on the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
As mentioned in my previous Ice World Journal article, a suppliers committee has been formed to discuss how FSMA may affect equipment manufacturer, distributors and packaging suppliers to the ice industry. The goal of this committee is to work in conjunction with the IPIA and ice manufactures to address some of the key questions and concerns FSMA has presented with regards to cleaning and sanitization of equipment, documentation for food contact surfaces, and packaging.
The FSMA Suppliers Committee had its first conference call at the end of February to start the discussion on the potential ramifications of FSMA regulations on equipment manufacturers and packaging suppliers. Several topics were discussed, from the supplier’s perspective as we tried to address the major concerns of the ice manufacturer and FSMA regulations. We came up with the following areas to focus on for our future conference calls.
For equipment manufacturers, the current focus should be on providing cleaning and sanitizing procedures for their equipment. Coming up with a set of guidelines to ensure that products used to properly clean and sanitize the equipment is both accepted by the FDA and safe to use on their equipment. Another topic discussed was the need for documentation for all food contact surfaces of the equipment, making sure that equipment is supplied with the proper documentation stating that the food contact surfaces are FDA approved.
On the packaging side, the focus should be on creating a Supplier’s Verification Form which would be a check list that covers items like pest control, allergen protocols and good manufacturing practices. This form would be created through the collaborative efforts of packaging companies who are members of the IPIA, and the PIQCS committee.
Please keep in mind that the supplier committee has only started to discuss the topics mentioned above and by no means has there been any final decisions made by the committee or the IPIA on any of these topics. The purpose of the committee to start the discussion and to help suppliers understand what is may be required of them down the road.
I would also like to invite anyone who would like to be involved in future calls to please e-mail me, don_hutton@cascades.com, I plan on having a couple more calls in the coming months to continue the discussion.
A thank you goes out to the following people who were on the first call; Charlotte Maginnis (Leer), Kevin Desjardin (Keith), Fed Lomangino (Ice King), Stephen Niestroy (Matthiesen), Brian Balman (Modern Ice), Luc Lauzon (Intropak), Jennifer Bourgault (Intropak), Jane McEwen (IPIA).