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Glossary entry

French term or phrase:

DDM pièce à postériori

English translation:

Metal detection test on processed item

Added to glossary by Ruth Tanner
Dec 26, 2019 03:01
4 yrs ago
10 viewers *
French term

DDM pièce à postériori

French to English Tech/Engineering Safety Safe food handling
This document forms part of the HACCP plan for a bread production environment, providing a record of problems and solutions with regard to food safety. Here's the context for the term:

Danger: Corps étrangers divers matière
Cause: Matière contaminée chez le FO
Mesure de maîtrise: DDM pièce à postériori pour corps étrangers métalliques
Proposed translations (English)
4 Metal detector on elements after processing
3 check items with certain shelf life expiry dates based on the facts
References
Reference: DDM abbreviation french

Discussion

Ruth Tanner (asker) Dec 30, 2019:
@Tony I was thinking of "after the fact" as meaning after discovery of contamination in the original manufacturer's ingredients, but before the finished product goes out to the consumer. But following your explanation, I agree that something like "after processing" might fit better here.
Conor McAuley Dec 30, 2019:
Just for the record My Dad worked in food processing for 30 or 40 years, so I know about this stuff.
Conor McAuley Dec 30, 2019:
Fair enough Tony First time I've seen it though, in a few years at this.

I'm sure we all can agree though, that abbreviations/in-house jargon are the bane of our lives.
Tony M Dec 30, 2019:
@ Conor 'FO' is a frequently-used abbreviation for 'FOURNISSEUR', and in all the contexts where I've encountered it, it has just been a shortening of the word 'FOurnisseur', so the two letters don't actually stand for anything individually.
Conor McAuley Dec 30, 2019:
Actually, we don't even know what "FO" is here Maybe fournisseur something? I have no idea what the O could be in a bread context.
Tony M Dec 30, 2019:
@ Asker Ah yes, but that's a quite different usage, perfectly acceptable in EN-UK too — but with the sense of 'after the event' — but I don't think in your case they're going to wait till someone finds a metal object in their cake before testing it! The key point here is to remember we are starting off with 'raw materials' and ending up with 'pièces', which gves us a clue as to what the 'event' (or 'fact') might be...
Ruth Tanner (asker) Dec 30, 2019:
@Tony Thanks for the confirmation.

And yes, "after the fact" sounded odd to me, too, but I found multiple examples of this expression being used in HACCP plans. On looking again, however, I think they are generally US or Australian websites, so perhaps it's not the correct term for UK English.

A few examples:

"Teams can address hot spots and issues right away, not after the fact."
https://globalfoodsafetyresource.com/haccp-plan/

"... it became clear that taking action after the fact was inadequate to protect consumers ..."
https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/fs/fs-20-w.pdf

"... food safety and quality risks are being addressed prior to potential incidents rather than after the fact. ..."
http://www.haccp.com.au/documents/bulletin8.pdf
Tony M Dec 30, 2019:
@ Asker That has to be it!

But certainly not "after the fact" — that is more likely to be used in a crime situation, but not manufacturing!
Ruth Tanner (asker) Dec 30, 2019:
Détecteur de Métaux? I've now found this:

"Le dispositif CEIA Field Tester System a été conçu pour vérifier les performances d’un Détecteur de Métaux (DDM) lors et sur le lieu de l’installation et, par la suite, à l’occasion d’interventions d’entretien périodique programmées par le client."
https://www.ceia.net/security/product.aspx?a=26&lan=fra

I think it would make sense that after the discovery of foreign bodies of any kind, metallic content should be checked for by running a metal detection test on the object.

"Conduct metal detection test on object after the fact for metallic foreign bodies"?

Proposed translations

4 days
Selected

Metal detector on elements after processing

I feel sure, Asker, that you have found the correct meaning of 'DDM' — though as far as I know, the EN term being inherently more succinct, we don't have any such 'standard' abbreviation in EN, and it would be unwise to 'invent' one.

They are talking about contamination of the raw materials at the Supplier, but here are suggesting that the metal detection should take place after the raw materials have been 'processed' to produce a complete 'element'; of course, if you know what is being produced, you may find a more suitable word for 'pièce' — 'article', 'item' etc. And likewise, if you know what the 'processing' involves, you may be able to find a more appropriate term there too.
I am imagining, say, making cupcakes, where instead of testing the flour, sugar, eggs, butter separately as they arrive, the whole cake is tested after baking. In essence, this takes away the possibility of knowing where the contamination originally came from, but clearly covers the important thing: that it doesn't reach the customer's plate!

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Note added at 4 days (2019-12-30 06:58:37 GMT)
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'A posteriori' is a common-enough catch-all expression, which usually just means 'after(wards)' — where whatever it is 'after' is sufficiently implied not to need to be stated; in the sense, often, of "after the event"... So here, we are talking about 'raw materials' > 'articles', so it means 'raw materials after they have been processed into articles'

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Note added at 4 days (2019-12-30 07:01:50 GMT)
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We often use 'pièces' like this in catering to represent e.g. the number of "whatevers" being made; so a recipe might say it is enough to make 20 'pièces', whereas in EN we have a tendency to say 20 cakes / buns / pies etc. — though we do also use 'pieces' in the same way. Note that these 'pièces' are finished articles (at whatever stage we are working, of course), rather than 'component parts' as they might be in some contexts.
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks for the additional information, Tony. I changed the wording slightly to fit my context."
1 day 13 hrs

check items with certain shelf life expiry dates based on the facts

a posteriori (no accents, Latin)
https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/a_posteriori/...

"La date de durabilité minimale ou DDM — qui a remplacé en 2015 mais avec les mêmes caractéristiques, la date limite d'utilisation optimale ou DLUO — est une date indiquée sur l'emballage de certaines denrées au-delà de laquelle leurs qualités organoleptiques et nutritionnelles ne sont plus garanties" (Wiki)

Toggle French and English on Wiki (a very handy trick in general):
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Date_de_durabilité_minimale
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelf_life

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Note added at 1 day 13 hrs (2019-12-27 17:00:25 GMT)
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It's a nasty little term because -- even apart from the recent change in terminology and the bit of Latin -- the verb has been left out after the colon, the text is kind of in note form.
Note from asker:
Thanks, Conor! Your comments were much appreciated even though I found a different solution in the end.
Peer comment(s):
disagree Tony M : Apart from the fact I don't believe the use-by date has anything to do with detecting foreign objects, the expression as you have written it doesn't really mean anything in EN.
2 days 13 hrs
So long as document writers are too lazy to write out the full term and use jargon, there will always be confusion. Use-by dates in product recall notices are a classic. The producer narrows down the problem to a certain batch, or day, or shift.
agree GILLES MEUNIER
3 days 19 hrs
Thanks Gilou...my words obviously aren't gobbledegook after all. Reassuring.
Something went wrong...

Reference comments

2 hrs
Reference:

Reference: DDM abbreviation french

Reference information:
Search produced this:
https://www.acronymfinder.com/Date-de-Durabilité-Minimale-(F...

There should be an English equivalent ("use-by date"?) or similar.

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Note added at 2 hrs (2019-12-26 05:17:20 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

try this link
https://www.acronymfinder.com

type in DDM abbreviation french
not sure why these links don't work...

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Note added at 15 hrs (2019-12-26 18:19:33 GMT)
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"Solution: Check backwards to the batch sell-by date"
Note from asker:
Thanks, Ben. I did find this abbreviation earlier and I think the English equivalent is "Best Before". It's true that in recalling contaminated batches, businesses often identify them by their "best before" date, but I still wasn't sure that this really fits here. Open to suggestions about it, though.
Thanks very much for your input, Ben. This term was quite a challenge!
Peer comments on this reference comment:
agree philgoddard : Yes, I think I think it's probably this, and they use the sell-by date to trace when the contamination occurred.
2 hrs
Yes, pièce a postériori meaning looking back at each batch?
neutral mchd : Pas certaine de cela ! Le reste du texte parle de détection de corps étrangers métalliques
2 hrs
agree erwan-l : https://www.traqfood.com/notre-blog-hygiene-et-reglementatio...
1 day 7 hrs
neutral Tony M : I agree with mchd: this doesn't seem to me relevant to the very specific context here, and I think Asker has found the correct answer themselves.
4 days
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