Implementing SALSA
Safe and Local Supplier Approval
Has your potential customer asked you if you have SALSA?
Not only do I prepare businesses for their first SALSA audit through my own consultancy, I am also a SALSA auditor, mentor and HACCP trainer, so you can be confident that you’re getting the expert help you need!
Where do you start? Getting advice is great to find your way forward. Please call for a chat, and I can explain everything you need to know!
Don’t know where to start with SALSA?
HACCP Plan
Writing a HACCP for the first time can be a little daunting. Some people do not know where to start and have had no experience in HACCP previously. A lot of start-up businesses are run by foodies – creative cooks and chefs with a passion for food, not hazard analysis of food safety risks!
To help you complete an HACCP plan from scratch, I provide an expert service, which can be in person at your site, or via online meetings and telephone calls. The way I complete all HACCP plans is to follow the legislation by using the 7 Principles of Codex Alimentarius.
My 5 Step Process of HACCP Completion is:
- Information gathering for the HACCP Scope: HACCP Team, Product Descriptions and Processes
- Documenting the Product Description and Process Flow Diagram and verify them as correct
- Carry out the Hazard Analysis
- Define CCPs, Monitoring Procedures and Corrective Actions
- Provide you with a finished, documented HACCP plan with all of the associated CCP Procedures and Records ready to implement into your business. I then take time to fully explain the content of the HACCP plan to you, so you understand the logic and methodology, so you can confidently relay this to your EHO or auditor
By following this methodical process, you know you have an HACCP completed by someone who is highly trained and experienced, ensuring that you have a clear and bespoke HACCP plan in place.
Your HACCP plan a very important document to help you understand food safety. It is also a legal requirement and is essential to keep the food you produce safe, in turn keeping the consumers safe and ultimately your business!
Legal Label Compliance
The service I provide ensures that the following information is thoroughly checked:
- Prerequisite controls: site-wide controls through procedures, risk Assessments and records
- HACCP Plan and associated CCP procedures and records
- Management systems and documentation
- Premises control
A pre-written SALSA documentation pack which has 90% of the work done for you is an efficient way to get started. The other 10% (which is specific to your products and processes) can be implemented by you, or as a team with my assistance. Get in touch to chat through the Documentation Pack details!
Pre-Audit
This is one thing I find most customers decide to take advantage of, and it is always very beneficial. Being a SALSA Auditor myself, I can provide a realistic example of what it would be like on the audit day. This gives you time to take action on any items that may need to be finished off to ensure you are 100% audit ready!
Audit day support
I am available to provide audit day support. Some people prefer to have me there on the first audit, some prefer to handle it themselves, the choice is yours!
I have a 100% pass rate to date! Please get in touch for further information.
Need to ensure your site is SALSA compliant?
When you organise a site visit by Ruth Shaw Consulting Ltd, I will be able to complete a site walk through and discuss any changes you may need to make to ensure the site is ready.
Whilst visiting, I can complete a gap analysis audit of your documentation to discuss what else you may require. I will leave you with a simple to use action plan, ready for you to mark off actions as you complete them.
This action plan also covers part of Section 3.1: Internal Systems review of the SALSA standard, so it is a very efficient way of crossing off many things with one site visit.
HACCP Training
The HACCP Training will be tailored to your businesses products and processes to make sure it is relevant, and everyone who passes the exam at the end will receive a certificate as proof of completion. Call me to enquire about course costs and other details.
Legal Label Compliance
Checking the compliance of your product label is so important to get right. Legal or food safety mistakes such as incorrect allergen declarations, mean you could have to recall your product and you could put the consumer at risk.
The service I provide ensures that the following information is thoroughly checked:
- Product name and legal description
- Ingredient declaration, including QUID (Quantitative Ingredient Declaration), additives, allergens and allergens statement
- Claims, such as health, nutrition or provenance which have to be validated
- Nutritional information that needs to be calculated or tested. Nutritional calculations can be provided.
- Net quantity
- Minimum durability, i.e. shelf life – best before / use by date
- Storage instructions
- Name and address
- Country of origin
- Instructions for use
- Alcohol content
- Claims
As you can see, there is a lot to think about! Take away the burden of wondering if your label is right by letting my expertise do the work for you. Please get in touch for further information.
Shelf Life Testing
Shelf Life. The life of the product after production until it has to be ‘Used By’ or it is ‘Best Before’.
So, what’s the difference?
Use By – The product must be consumed by the ‘Use By’ the date applied to the pack. It must not be consumed after the Use By date. After that date, pathogenic bacteria will grow to unsafe levels. We understand this, because chilled and high-risk products are tested by a laboratory to validate what the ‘Use By’ date should be. It is necessary to test, to protect the consumer.
Best Before – The product is better quality if it is consumed before the Best Before date. After that date, the quality of the product declines. Signs of deterioration such as visual quality, odour, taste will appear. The assessments completed on ambient stable products are called Organoleptic Assessments, which are sensory tests: Taste, Odour, Appearance, Texture and Colour. Ambient stable products such as bread, jams, marmalades, biscuits, cake etc, can be assessed through organoleptic testing only.
Best Before dates are also applied to products such as tinned products, and ambient jarred sauces. These types of product have to go through a thermal process to ensure they are safe, such as sterilisation. These types of products will require microbiological testing as well as organoleptic testing.
Getting microbiological testing done for the products which need it, is essential in order to determine product shelf life. Because, if you get it wrong, you could cause someone to have food poisoning, become very sick, be hospitalised and for the vulnerable categories of people, you could cause death. So yes, this part of launching a product is very important!
Get Started
You need to become a member of SALSA. The SALSA membership and audit currently costs £635 (2020 pricing). When you have paid your membership, you get access to the SALSA Members area which has some great tools and tips. Please see the link to their website below: