Quality and inspection
Traceability and recalls.
A recall is decided by what you can prove about which goods are affected. Without batch identity that runs from the Indonesian production record to your own customer, the answer is everything you ever sold, and that is what makes a small problem enormous.
What a batch code has to do.
Connect a unit in a customer's hand back to a production run in Indonesia, and forward from that run to every customer who received it. Both directions matter and buyers usually only build one.
It has to be readable after the goods have been handled: on the pack rather than only on the carton, since cartons get opened and discarded.
It has to be recorded at every handover. A batch code nobody wrote down at the warehouse is a batch code that stops at your door.
What to ask the factory for.
Five things, and the last one tells you whether the first four actually work.
- 01
Batch coding on the primary pack
Not only on the carton. Agree the format and where it is printed before the first run.
- 02
Production records tied to the code
Which raw material lots, which day, which line. This is what makes a recall bounded rather than total.
- 03
Retained samples
Sealed, kept by the producer, per batch. Without one, a complaint months later cannot be investigated at all.
- 04
Raw material traceability
How far back the factory can go. For smallholder crops this is genuinely hard and it is worth knowing the real answer rather than the polite one.
- 05
A mock recall
Ask whether they have run one and what it showed. A factory that has never tested its own traceability does not know whether it works.
What you have to hold.
Which batch went to which customer. This is the part that sits entirely with you and the part most importers do not have.
The documents for each consignment, filed against the batch rather than against the month.
Your own retained samples, for the same reason the factory keeps theirs.
A written procedure naming who decides, who notifies whom and in what order. Writing it during an incident is the worst possible time.
Testing it before you need it.
Pick a batch from six months ago and try to answer two questions: which raw material went into it, and which of your customers received it. Give yourself an hour.
Most importers doing this for the first time find they can answer neither, and the fix is usually a spreadsheet column rather than a system.
Do it annually. It takes an afternoon and it is the difference between a targeted withdrawal and a general one.
Questions buyers ask.
Do small importers really need this?
The obligation to withdraw unsafe product does not scale with company size in most markets. What scales is the cost of not being able to say which product is affected.
How far back should traceability go?
One step back and one step forward is the common baseline, meaning your supplier and your customer. Deeper is better and for smallholder crops it is genuinely difficult, so establish what is real rather than what is claimed.
What if the factory has no batch coding?
Then you cannot bound a recall, and that is a reason to fix it before ordering rather than a reason to walk away. Many Indonesian producers will introduce coding when a customer explains why and specifies the format.
Read next.
Inspecting before it sails
The five moments worth inspecting, what a report has to contain, and the mistake that makes an inspection worthless.
When the shipment is wrong
The first forty-eight hours decide what you can recover. What to do in order, and what destroys a claim.
What a factory audit can and cannot tell you
An audit is a snapshot of a place on a day. What that establishes, what it cannot reach, and how buyers over-read it.
Labelling for your market
Printed in Indonesia and judged in your country. What has to appear, and who carries the obligation.
Managing a supplier over years
Quality drifts slowly and nobody announces it. What to measure and when to add a second source.
HACCP
HACCP is the food safety system a processing plant runs. Buyers ask for the certificate and get the wrong thing. What it is and what it actually supports.
Certificate of analysis
The laboratory report on a shipped lot. What belongs on it, why sampling matters more than the figures, and why retained samples settle disputes.
Checking goods on arrival
Twenty minutes per delivery catches most problems while you can still act on them.
Allergens in a shared factory
Most Indonesian plants run several products on one line. What that means for your label.
Foreign bodies
Glass, metal, stone and plastic in food. What a factory should do and what to check.
Product liability
Importing makes you the producer in most legal systems. What that means for your exposure.
Sourcing from Indonesia?
Tell us the product, the quantity and the destination. We come back with what it involves before anyone talks about money.