Before a product is manufactured, your materials go through a series of processes. For example, mixing a number of raw materials in mixing vessels. To ensure the allergen levels are calculated correctly, you should record these process steps in the calculation tool.
For each process step, you specify how and to what extent cross-contamination occurs, and for each allergen, you enter the measured and estimated values.
When creating a new process step, click the green ‘Add’ button. A new window will open.
Details
- Enter the name of the process step. For example, ‘mixing dough’ or ‘filling meat stew products’.
Under ‘Type of cross-contamination’, specify what type of contamination occurs in this process step. You can choose between: Particulates or Homogeneous.
- For Particulates, enter the Weight of Point Contamination (g)
- For Homogeneous contamination, enter the Batch size (kg) in kilograms. Then enter the product residue (g) in grams.
Example particulates
Example Homogeneous
- Finally, you can enter an explanation on the details page. This explanation will be shown in the report. Think of a description of the process. For example:
- Pieces of egg and celery may end up in the product.
- In between, the mixing vessels have been visually cleaned by scraping and rinsing with water. Some residue may remain on the walls as no cleaning with chemicals or high temperatures has been carried out.
Allergens
In the Allergens tab, enter the details for the specified allergens. For each allergen, note the following, if applicable:
- Allergen content (%)
- Protein content (%)
If a value is not available, you can enter 0 in the relevant fields.
The exception to this is the allergen Sulphite. For this, if applicable, enter the PPM cross-contamination.
The values in the Details and Allergens tabs are unique to your business and are necessary to arrive at a correct calculation of cross-contaminations and reports.
Click on ‘Save changes’ to save the data. Enter all your process steps in this way where allergen contamination may be present.
In the following steps, you will group the process steps you have created into a process.