The International Dairy Foods Association says some of its members report that the FDA inspectors don’t appear to have been adequately trained on the juice HACCP regulation and on dairy plants processing juice. IDFA says manufacturers are in a position of having to educate the government inspectors on the regulation, as well as on processing and pasteurization operations.
The problems reportedly include: requesting copies of records not required by the FDA HACCP regulation; lack of knowledge and experience with dairy and juice processing equipment; demanding validation of dairy pasteurization times and temperatures for juice beverages; expecting the plant’s HACCP program to list milk allergens, cleaning and sanitation of processing equipment; and incoming ingredient receiving as a critical control point.