A supplier file fails the hour someone treats a brochure as a test. Split the pages before the meeting, and leave a row blank when the file is missing.
Sort the file into a dated record, a test, and a sales claim before the meeting. A machine passes a named scheme only when that scheme’s report says so. Take model, speed, and power from the manufacturer sheet for the equipment in the file.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration study section dated 9 August 2004 asked a panel which problems apply at a processor. “Poor plant and equipment sanitation” and “contamination of raw materials” were on that list. Use those names as reasons to ask for a file. The 2004 list is not the rule that applies to a plant today. Confirm the current regulation for the product, the process, and the jurisdiction.
| Pile | Ask | Leave blank if |
|---|---|---|
| Record | Which page names the object, the date, and the person who signed? | The page has no date |
| Test | Which page names the method, the sample, and the result? | The result is only a slogan |
| Claim | Which sentence has no file behind it? | You have not marked it as a claim |
| Sanitation | Where is the cleaning instruction, and which parts does it stop short of? | The instruction is not in the file |
| Materials | Which record covers the raw material or the contact material? | The lot is not identified |
- Put the brochure in the claim pile even when the wording sounds technical.
- Do not copy a peer plant's numbers into this file and call them yours.
- Do not write a pass or a fail in the margin of this sheet.
- Take the sanitation questions to the cleanability page.
- Take the pack questions to the seal page.
- Take the floor-level contact material, NSF H1 lubricant, brittle register, and fail-safe reject checks to the packaging line food safety audit checklist.
The same study’s further-reading list names an old audit document on this domain. That citation is explained, with the year, on the history page. Use this checklist to sort the pre-meeting file you already hold, then move to the food safety audit checklist for packaging lines during line-side equipment verification.
