Raw Material Testing in the Food Industry: A Simple Plan

Raw material testing is how a food maker knows an ingredient is what it should be before it goes into a batch. For a small maker it starts with checking what arrives, not with a lab: a look, a smell, a temperature, the supplier's lot and date, and the supplier's certificate of analysis against your own specification. Lab tests come in where the risk is: an ingredient that could carry a hazard into your product, or a supplier whose certificates you want to verify now and then. FDA's food manufacturing rule asks for the basic version, raw materials inspected and handled as needed to make sure they're clean and suitable (21 CFR 117.80), and lists sampling and testing among the ways a facility with a supply-chain program can verify a supplier (21 CFR 117.410). In the example below, a chip kitchen's five ingredients get five different levels of checking, from a look at every delivery of taro to a yearly lab test of one lot of coconut milk. Below are the kinds of tests, how to decide what each ingredient needs, the plan, and the records.

The short version

• Check every delivery: condition, temperature where it matters, supplier lot and date, paperwork.
• Ask for a certificate of analysis where the risk calls for it, and check it against your specification.
• Test in a lab where the risk is real, or to verify a supplier's certificates now and then.
• Decide per ingredient: what could go wrong, how bad, how likely, and how well the supplier controls it.
• Write the plan down: ingredient, check, how often, who, and what passes.
• Hold anything that fails or is missing paperwork until it's sorted.
• TaroStack puts your checks on the receipt and keeps unchecked stock out of batches. More below.

Four kinds of checking

In a small kitchen, the first two do the daily work. How a delivery is inspected step by step is in incoming inspection checklist, and how certificates are tracked lot by lot is in certificate of analysis tracking.

Deciding what each ingredient needs

For each ingredient, four questions:

1. What could go wrong? Pathogens, foreign matter, an undeclared allergen, the wrong ingredient, spoilage.
2. How bad would it be? A quality problem, or a safety one.
3. Does your process take care of it? Frying at 350°F deals with things that a cold-mixed dip doesn't.
4. How good is the supplier? Approved and steady, or new, or conditional after a problem.

The answers decide the level: inspection only, a certificate every lot, or a certificate plus an occasional lab test. Which suppliers are approved, and on what terms, is in approved supplier list.

A worked example

Windward Roots, the made-up taro business I use in these examples, wrote this plan for its chip kitchen:

The frying step is why the taro needs inspection rather than a lab test, and the sesame is checked for what its label says because sesame is an allergen the kitchen has to keep track of. The lab test of coconut milk once a year is a check that the supplier's certificates match what a lab finds. Every limit in the plan comes from the ingredient's specification; how a specification is written is in product specification sheet.

Records

Each check leaves a record: the date, the supplier, the supplier's lot, what was checked, the result, who checked it, and the decision: accept, hold or reject. A failed check or a missing certificate means the lot waits apart until it's resolved, as in hold and release procedure. Lab results are kept with the lot they tested. This is general information, not legal advice; your food safety plan, your buyers and your inspector may ask for more.

Where this stops working

A testing plan on paper meets a busy morning. The salt's certificate is "coming", the delivery goes on the shelf beside the salt that had one, and a week later nobody knows which bag went into which batch. The yearly lab test is forgotten because nothing reminds anyone, and the result that did come back is in an email.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack puts the testing plan on the receipt and keeps unchecked stock out of use.

Checks on every receipt. Receipts carry your own checks, tick boxes, numbers, text, choices and initials, like "certificate received", a delivery temperature or a reading with a limit, flagged when it's outside it. Receiving records the supplier's lot and dates, and scanning a supplier's GS1-128 case label fills them in.

Held until it's checked. A delivery can be received straight into quarantine, line by line, and a setting can quarantine every delivery on receipt until it's checked. Quarantined stock is kept out of what's available to sell, pick or use in a batch until it's released.

And every lot, traced. Recording a batch notes which ingredient lots went into it automatically, so if an ingredient lot is ever questioned, one report shows every batch and customer it reached.

Receiving with your own checks, quarantine, lots and recalls are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

What is raw material testing in the food industry?

Checking that an ingredient is what it should be before it's used: inspection on receipt, the supplier's lot, date and certificate of analysis, quick tests in house, and lab tests where the risk calls for them.

What tests are done on raw materials for food?

Inspection of condition, temperature and labels; review of the certificate of analysis against your specification; and, where needed, lab tests such as microbiology, moisture, allergen or identity.

How often should raw materials be tested?

By risk. Inspect every delivery; review a certificate for every lot where you require one; send samples to a lab where a hazard is real, or now and then to verify a supplier's certificates.

Is a certificate of analysis enough?

For an ingredient from an approved supplier, a certificate checked against your specification is the main check. An occasional lab test of a lot shows whether the certificates can be trusted.