Ways to reduce the risk of food contamination in your plant

Ways to reduce the risk of food contamination in your plant

Food and beverage processing plants play a key role in keeping our food supply safe. This requires adherence to strict protocols, one of which is implementing a system for managing food safety based on the HACCP system.

 The three main categories of food contamination

When something gets into food that shouldn’t be there, and makes it unsafe to eat, the food is contaminated. This can lead to food-borne illness, and food-borne illness outbreaks, which can negatively impact your business. We can help you identify potential risks and take steps to avoid them. There are three main categories of food safety hazards; biological, physical, and cross-contamination or chemical.

Biological contamination

Biological contamination is when food becomes contaminated by living organisms or the substances they produce. It is a common cause of food-borne illness, food poisoning, and food spoilage and waste.

 Tips for reducing the risk of biological contamination:  

• Safe temperature – Keep high-risk foods such as meat, poultry, dairy, and eggs out of the Temperature Danger Zone* In Manitoba, the Temperature Danger Zone is 5°C – 60°C (41°F – 140°F). In all other provinces and territories in Canada, it is 4°C – 60°C (40°F – 140°F)
• Safe surfaces – Clean and sanitize all food contact surfaces and equipment regularly
• Safe surroundings – Maintain good overall hygiene and sanitation of the premises

Physical contamination

Physical contamination occurs when a physical object enters food during production or processing.  Physical objects in food are not only distressing for the consumer, they can be a choking hazard, and can also introduce biological contaminants.

Tips for reducing the risk of physical contamination: 

• Wear hair neatly tied back or wear a hair/beard net
• No nail polish, fake nails, mascara, or anything that can become detached and end up in the packaging
• Employees must have specific footwear to wear exclusively inside the plant, and when passing from one department to another, they must make sure their footwear undergoes the established sanitization process.

Cross-contamination

In a food processing environment, cross-contamination is the transfer of contaminants from a surface, object, or person to food, and is usually the result of improper handling procedures. Cross-contamination can be physical or chemical. It can also pose a risk to customers with food allergies, as trace amounts of an allergen can be transferred in the same way as microorganisms, and cause a serious, and in some cases, lethal allergic reactions.

Tips for reducing the risk of cross contamination:

• Use colour coding. – Colour coding is a way of differentiating between different stages, parts, tools or areas of a food production process, such as using red for raw and blue for cooked items.
• Sanitize footwear– Footwear is an often-overlooked source of cross-contamination. Pathogens such as salmonella and listeria, which are the most frequent cause of food recalls, can enter a facility on a worker’s boots and spread throughout an entire plant.
• Make allergen management procedures part of your food safety plan
• Maintain high standards of personal hygiene

The food safety tips, and best practices listed above are by no means an exhaustive list what you need to do to prevent food contamination. The best way to keep your practices up to date and ensure food safety is through continuous education and training.

A good place to begin is with a thorough evaluation of your current practices and facility. Why not let Sani Marc provide you with an in-depth OPTIsafe® evaluation? Our team of experts, including food safety professionals, engineering system specialists and microbiologists, will thoroughly assess your current sanitation operations and provide you with a customized action plan for optimizing food safety.