Anyone familiar with the AIB (American Institute of Baking) standard for Food contact or non-food contact?

I'll be merging this requirements into an ISO system soon. Some overlap - like traceability of raw material. Then there are the 'pest control' requirements which we are conveniently outsourcing.

Anyway - I would like to hear from someone that's been through an audit.

Laura

Anyone familiar with the AIB (American Institute of Baking) standard for Food contact or non-food contact?

I'll be merging this requirements into an ISO system soon. Some overlap - like traceability of raw material. Then there are the 'pest control' requirements which we are conveniently outsourcing.

Anyway - I would like to hear from someone that's been through an audit.

LauraI'm really not familiar with the AIB, but here is a link to their Consolidated Standards (http://www.aibinternational.com/products/consolidatedstandards/) and to their audit questionaire. (http://www.aibonline.org/audits/foodsafety/GenFSChecklist.pdf)

Hope this helps.

Thanks Al - I've been to the website and downloading the appropriate documents already. We've done a 'gap assessment' but that's based on my ISO auditng experience, and I wasn't sure if there were different nuances or 'interpretations' that are used.

The 'new' requirements are on rodent and pest control - records that shipping containers are inspected for evidence of rodents - storage away from wallls so pest and rodent inspections can be made etc. Alot can be incorporated into material handling procedures that already exist. The standard is 'easier' to read than ISO, IMHO, but I was just looking for a take on someone that has been through an audit.

If anyone else is interested, I'll keep you all posted on my experiences with this. Target audit is April.

Laura

My first post after many, many visits to the cove, bear with me. We are also on the road to AIB (non-food contact - label maker) certification. Targeting mid-summer audit. I've never been through one either, but survived quite a few ISO and QS audits so it can't be that bad. Glad to work with you and share thoughts and ideas if you'd like.

Dave

Sounds good. I will post my 'learnings' and questions. Where in NE Ohio? I'm originally from the area?

The first thing I did was acquire outside certified contractor for the pest control. They were already there on a regular basis - this will up the cost a little, but not much. The internal requirements for stocking chemicals, etc were not easily managed. Outsourcing this to an AIB certified contractor was much easier for the difference in cost.

Sebring, OH; bout halfway between Canton and Youngstown as the crow flies.

WE are doing the same; Terminex is our pest control company, took one call, ten minutes and a few extra bucks, same as you said. Are you after the Food Safety or non-food contact version? The FS version looks much more involved. We're a little more complicated in that I was brought in to upgrade the quality system (pretty weak when I started) to ISO compliance so we're developing a lot of the procedures from scratch along with throwing in the AIB (customer requirement). So far the biggest bug has been implementing "deep" cleaning practices into the maintenance process. (a lot of the "why should I have to do that", "not in my job desc." , etc.) Just like ISO/QS. Culture change is always such a joy! That's what I love about the quality game.

Dave

We are non-food contact at this time. There was talk about 'eventually' upgrading because one of the competitors is Food Safety.

So far not too much resistance. Haven't really gotten into all the cleaning requirments as yet, but it's almost like the maintenance guys were looking forward to it being a 'requirement' so manufacturing frees up machines. Coats, coffee cups and mugs will create a little change resistance. But management is looking forward to it cleaning up the area - along the 5S lines.

I grew up in South Euclid. Folks are now in Willoughby Hills.

Laura,

I live in Shaker Heights and just started consulting at a small Cleveland company to help them get ready for their non-food contact AIB audit. Their QMS is currently based on QS9000: 1994, but it's a mess. I'm planning on integrating the AIB requirements into the QM, and reworking the QM at the same time.

I'm curious as to how your audit went.

I wish I could help. The project got put on the back burner. It's a chicken - egg thing right now with the customer. They had to commit to going for it if they got a contract, but that's not finalized as yet.

I plan on doing the same thing - incorporating it into the QMS as soon as they flip the switch, but they don't want me spending time on it just yet. They have a trienniel ISO assessment in a couple weeks, so its just as well for now.

Laura