Minimum Supplier Certifications for Food Supplements

[Jack G]

Hi Everyone,

Currently working for a small company in the UK that sources raw materials and food supplements mainly from China.

I have been thrown in the deep end to manage the Quality side of things and feel overwhelmed as I have little experience and I was hoping that someone could help me.

I was curious as to how to decide on a minimum acceptance criteria for our suppliers. We have a supplier questionnaire but I can't seem to see any minimum requirements such as ISO or HACCP for example. How would I define these limits? Where do I draw the line?

Any help would be hugely appreciated!

 

[6thsense]

In your line of work I would advice all suppliers to be certified against both a Quality Management System (ISO 9001 minimum) and a Food Safety Management System (HACCP, ISO 22000 or other) by a reputable certifying body so that you have some confidence in the supplier. Probably also plan around travel to some of these supplier in the future. In the meantime you could also work on some trainings for all these Management Systems as well. I also do trust you receive these raw materials and supplements with some certificate of analysis/conformance which should state the limits are based on what requirement.

 

[Jack G]

In your line of work I would advice all suppliers to be certified against both a Quality Management System (ISO 9001 minimum) and a Food Safety Management System (HACCP, ISO 22000 or other) by a reputable certifying body so that you have some confidence in the supplier. Probably also plan around travel to some of these supplier in the future. In the meantime you could also work on some trainings for all these Management Systems as well. I also do trust you receive these raw materials and supplements with some certificate of analysis/conformance which should state the limits are based on what requirement.

Thank you for your response.

This is something I am still considering and have been chasing a bunch of information from the suppliers. I have a supplier certification and product information tracker which helps me to see what certificates and documentation we have for each using conditional formatting to track expiry dates etc. Yes, the materials arrive with a CoA and I am in the long process of obtaining all recent product specifications which we can use for comparison. Also started to run heavy metals and micro testing on some of the products which should give us a good indication on product quality.

 

[NHP Consulting]

Supplier qualification is a significant advance in guaranteeing the quality of an item and advocating a decreased testing program. A supplier qualification program is likewise required for consistency with the dietary supplement cGMPs. As indicated by the dietary supplement cGMP's 21 CFR section 111 area 111.75 (2)(ii) you should qualify your supplier by building up the dependability of the supplier's certificate of analysis through the affirmation of the outcomes. In building up a supplier qualification program you are likewise needed to keep up documentation of how you qualified the supplier and occasionally re-affirm the supplier's certificate of analysis. It is up to your quality control faculty to survey and support the documentation presenting the reason for qualification (and re-qualification) of any supplier.