As a food manufacturer, you understand how the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) affects your business directly. But does it affect your relationships with food-grade oil suppliers?
Food-grade (and medical-grade) white oils are essential to the production process of not only food but a variety of products made for human consumption.
Though not directly consumed, it’s important to understand that these white oils are also subject to FSMA rules. However, not all suppliers are FMSA-compliant.
What possible implications could this have for the food manufacturing industry?
Food-Grade Oil Suppliers and the FSMA
White oil is a non-food material. Therefore, you might think that food-grade oil suppliers do not have to be compliant with the FSMA.
They do. However, not every supplier is able to state confidently that they are in compliance.
It’s true that most suppliers have internal processes to strive for:
- Quality – the product is properly formulated for use in food manufacturing.
- Purity – the product is refined enough to be sufficiently contaminant-free.
- Safety – the product is handled carefully to prevent environmental contamination.
However, if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) were to audit every food-grade oil supplier today, FSMA compliance would be hit or miss.
This is because internal auditing practices can vary greatly from supplier to supplier, leaving room for compromises in quality, purity, and safety. This could have an adverse effect on your business, especially as FSMA enforcement evolves.
2023 Updates to the Food Safety Modernization Act
As a brief review, the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 was meant to force food manufacturers to be cognizant of a range of potential supply chain issues:
- Environmental contamination
- Terrorism
- Fraudulent labeling
- Non-compliant imports
It also established a mandated FDA inspection frequency for food facilities. This means that food manufacturers must be hyper-vigilant with regard to their raw material supply chains, with quality control processes firmly in place.
These processes have to be audited every year to ensure compliance with new FSMA rules. At the time of writing, the FDA has rolled out new quality control rules for:
- Small entity traceability recorded for certain foods
- Transitioning out of temporary policies established during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Foreign supplier verification
A robust change management system is necessary to keep up with these and future changes. Food-grade oil suppliers are typically subject to supply chain audits as part of your process.
But they can save you time and money by opting to self-regulate using a globally-recognized quality assurance audit system, such as Safe Quality Food (SQF).
Benefits of Using SQF-Certified Food-Grade Oil Suppliers
SQF is a manufacturing efficiency and quality management system (QMS) that surpasses FDA/FSMA requirements for food production, handling, and shipping.
Based on ISO 9001, the internationally-recognized QMS, SQF is backed by the SQF Institute (SQFI), a division of the highly-regarded Food Industry Association.
Suppliers are audited annually by third-party SQFI-accredited certification bodies to ensure conformance with:
- Food safety policies
- Operations manuals
- Documentation and records
- Critical quality control points/testing
- Precise protocols for handling
- Other key requirements
A Level 3 certification indicates that a food-grade oil supplier has satisfied the basic requirements of providing a quality, highly-refined product, safely handled—and more.
Because SQF includes a quality logistics model, certification also indicates an ability to provide products efficiently, consistently, and cost-effectively.
For this reason, it isn’t only food producers and manufacturers that benefit from working with SQF-certified suppliers. The benefits are universal to all industries that rely on a steady supply of quality specialty oils.
Why Make Renkert Oil Your Food-Grade Oil Supplier?
As you may have already guessed, Renkert Oil is proud to be your best choice among SQF-certified food-grade oil suppliers.
This certification requires a significant investment of resources to maintain, but the return on that investment is undeniable.
SQF only makes us better at supplying you with a safe, quality product, on time, every time.
We’ve added this credential to our four decades of logistics expertise and commitment to deep inventories across the U.S. and Europe so we can offer you unparalleled peace of mind.
So before your next audit, reach out to learn more about Renkert Oil, the food-grade oil supplier that’s always two steps ahead—right where you need to be.