7.5.5 Preservation of product

Products and their component parts must be protected and preserved at all stages from receipt to delivery in order to maintain conformity to requirements.

  • Store the products in designated areas
  • Control inward receipts and outward releases
  • Products in storage should be assessed periodically to detect deterioration
  • All packaging must be sufficient to preserve and ensure product quality
  • Protection of the product may be extended to include delivery to the customer

Should I document our preservation of product process?

It is not a mandatory requirement to document your preservation of product process. However, you should always look to adequately define and control any operational processes that directly impact upon product quality. Therefore, the implementation of a preservation of product procedure will be appropriate to most businesses where such activities are undertaken.

How's best to document the process?

Develop and implement a procedure that defines how products are:

  • Identified
  • Handled
  • Packaged
  • Stored
  • Protected

Looking for help documenting the process?

We provide a Preservation of Product Procedure template to help you manage this process in many of our ISO Templates.

Measuring preservation of product process effectiveness

The effectiveness of the preservation of product process is often determined by the quantity and frequency of non-conformances that result in deviations from correct handling, packaging or storage methods or issues resulting from misidentification.