Food Plant Sanitation PDF

Food Plant Sanitation 1  A moral and legal obligation to produce food in clean surroundings. Each employee has obligations to uphold sanitary standards. INDUSTRY’S RESPONSIBILITIES Sanitation is every person’s job in th...

Food Plant Sanitation 1  A moral and legal obligation to produce food in clean surroundings. Each employee has obligations to uphold sanitary standards. INDUSTRY’S RESPONSIBILITIES Sanitation is every person’s job in the plant. If a plant is in sanitary shape there is no worry of what to do when an inspection by Health authorities is to be made. Sanitation should never end with the satisfaction of the municipal requirements. It should be a part of the everyday policy of that firm 2  MORAL / LEGAL OBLIGATIONS  Sanitation removes the worry about  Spreading of communicable diseases or  The potential of food poisoning.  If sanitation is properly maintained, a product free of defects will be produced and waste and spoilage can be eliminated.  From a legal obligation standpoint,  The Foodstuffs Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act states that food shall be deemed to be adulterated if it has become contaminated with filth, or whereby it may have been rendered injurious to health. 3  VALUE OF PLANNED SANITATION  A better product. Competition demands that better products be produced everyday.  A more efficient operation. Sufficient studies have been made in recent years to indicate that efficiency in a food plant is directly related to the sanitary conditions.  Greater employee productivity. This in itself should be reason enough to have a planned sanitation program.  Fewer accidents.  A sanitary plant serves as a barometer of the factory conditions. “Let me see your home and I’ll tell you what kind of a person you are or more importantly, let me see your factory and I’ll tell you the kind of product you produce.” 4  PLANTKEEPING Exterior - Outside  The grounds should be properly graded to provide natural drainage.  There should be no litter or waste accumulating in or around the factory, the receiving yard, the platforms, etc. grass, weeds and hedges should be controlled to prevent the harborage of insects or rodents.  Roads should be kept free from dust. Gravel, cinders, oil covered or paved roads are to be recommended.  The storage of the equipment outside a plant should be neat and orderly.  The parking lot should be kept orderly and all debris should be removed daily.  The parking spaces should be well-arranged and marked.  The buildings themselves, from an outside appearance standpoint, should be clean and well maintained.  All exterior openings should be screened and rodent proof.  The roof should be leak proof and there should be no uncovered openings.  The outside of the building should be free from insects and rodents.  All spilled or spoiled products should be cleaned up immediately and removed from the premises. 5  PLANTKEEPING Inside the building  All materials of construction in a food processing plant should lend themselves to easy cleaning.  The floors should be watertight, smooth surfaced and sloped 1/8 to ¼ per foot to floor drains approximately every 10 apart.  Drains should be capable of handling the necessary waste material.  It should be covered with removal grates so that they can be kept clean.  The walls, doors, partitions, pipes, ceilings, etc. should be kept clean and painted when if needed.  The building should be properly ventilated to prevent any drippage into food or onto food handling equipment, the growth of moulds and/or the deterioration of paint or structures.  The ventilation should be adequate to provide suitable working conditions for employees.  All windows, doors and openings in the food plant areas should be screened  Lighting should be adequate. Good lighting promotes cleanliness and makes the sanitation job much easier. 6  EQUIPMENT  Should be constructed with due regards to its cleanability and protection from contamination.  Materials of construction should be smooth, hard, non-porous and preferably of stainless steel.  All pipelines, fittings, etc., handling food should be of the sanitary type.  The elimination of sharp corners in tanks, flumes and other equipment greatly facilitates cleaning and prevents spoilage organisms from building up.  All equipment should be directly accessible for cleaning or proper provisions should be provided for cleaning in place (CIP).  All open equipment, such as, tanks, hoppers, buckets, elevators, etc. should be covered, and if it is a multi-floor area, there should be a floor curbing to a height of 6” around the chutes, etc.  All containers used to transport food materials should be kept clean and not used for other purposes. Nesting of pails, trays, etc. should not be allowed until they have been cleaned.  All equipment should be cleaned off after lubricating.  All unused equipment and equipment under repair should be removed from the processing area.  The waste in the food plant should be collected in containers properly designed for handling waste. This includes tight fitting lids. 7 STORAGE  Aisles should be kept clean and well-marked.  The lanes and aisles in the storage area should be marked accordingly.  Food materials, packages, etc. should be protected from insects, rodents, dust, dirt, etc.  All stored products should be placed away from the walls and in proper storage temperatures.  All storages should be cleaned at least once per week.  All incoming goods should be inspected as to damage, rodent or insect infestations.  Frequent inventories and evaluation of warehouse products should be constantly taken.  The management should also provide adequate space, and this space should be used properly. This includes control of temperature within limits depending on the perishable nature of the commodity. The policy of First In, First Out (FIFO) should be strictly adhered to. 8  EMPLOYEES  The employees, in a food plant should look sharp, they should feel sharp, and, if so, they should be sharp.  All employees must wear caps and women and men with long hair must wear hair nets and/or hair restraints.  Pins, curlers, jewellery, sentimental pieces, fingernail polish and other loose attachments shall not be worn.  Pens, pencils, watches, etc. must not be carried in pockets above the waistline.  Protective clothing should be always worn.  Gum chewing, smoking, or other use of tobacco and eating shall be confined to designated areas.  Glass bottles; etc. shall not be permitted in work areas.  Hands shall be washed and sanitised at the following times: (a) When reporting for work, after a break point, after smoking or eating, after picking up objects from the floor, after coughing or sneezing and covering mouth with hand, after blowing nose, after using the toilet facilities. 9  EMPLOYEES  They must report any blemishes or break in the skin to the supervisor prior to reporting for work.  Band aids or adhesives, which may become loose and fall off during the work time unless covered with gloves, are not to be used.  Safe personal conduct within the food plant should be strictly observed. Running, horseplay, riding on trucks or lifts, taking shortcuts (ducking under conveyors, etc. whether operating or not) are prohibited.  All employees should share responsibilities to maintain lockers and washrooms in neat, clean and in an orderly manner.  All employees should be required to observe proper habits of cleanliness. A food factory should not employ any person afflicted with infection or contagious disease. Health certificates should be required, and, lastly but most importantly, signs should be used throughout the company’s food processing facilities as to smoking, eating habits, washing habits, and general sanitary requirements. 10  SPECIAL AREAS  Should be provided for handling of clean uniforms, towels, toilet articles, soiled uniforms and linens, custodian’s supplies and equipment, pesticides, employee’s personal belongings and garbage and wastes.  Each of these areas should be operated for the storage and handling of the equipment, supplies, etc. stored therein.  In some cases it may be necessary to keep them under lock and key, but, most importantly, they reflect the attitude of housekeeping by the neatness, orderliness and maintenance of these facilities in accordance with good housekeeping practices.  Toilet, lockers and restrooms:  These facilities will determine in great part the attitude of personnel about the factory conditions.  They may pay the greatest dividends from the standpoint of plant sanitation, quality improvement, and employee morale.  Soap and throwaway towels.  Drinking fountains or taps with throwaway cups should be used.  First aid rooms and locker facilities for permanent employees are a must. 11  SPECIAL AREAS  Toilets should be provided with double doors and never open directly into any room where food is being processed.  They should be constructed of sanitary materials, adequately ventilated with all openings screened.  The toilet facilities, toilet areas, restrooms, etc. should be kept scrupulously clean.  There are minimum requirements depending on the numbers of employees for any given operation and obviously there should be facilities for both men and women, and they must be plainly marked.  The lunchroom will vary depending on the size of operation and the general facilities in the area.  Regardless, minimum lunchroom facilities, if no more than vending machines should be provided, even for those workers that carry their lunch. Of course, the full service lunchroom is the most ideal. 12  MATERIALS  Incoming materials should be carefully inventoried and evaluated as to assurance quality standards.  Likewise, outgoing materials must be properly identified in terms of shipments and qualities of products.  Great losses occur in warehouses by improper housekeeping practices in terms of breakage, pilferage, looting, etc. 13  SANITARY ORGANISATION  Management must be responsible for sanitation.  The plant manager directs all activities and determines policy.  Since management cannot be aware of all the details, authority must be delegated to some individual.  The authority to uphold standards of sanitation usually falls to the plant sanitarian.  Could be a Quality Assurance Technologists or production supervisor, however, this individual should not be so overloaded with other activities that he cannot effectively control sanitation.  The sanitarian must have a good foundation knowledge of Microbiology, chemistry, parasitology, and sanitary engineering.  The sanitarian should be directly responsible to management.  If he is part of the quality assurance department, his reports should be forwarded to management.  Since the sanitarian frequently deals with matters under the supervision of other technical personnel, he must be tactful to avoid conflicts of authority. 14  SANITARIAN RESPONSIBILITIES  To develop a sanitation programme.  To secure the support of management and employees.  To strive to constantly improve the programme.  To study sanitary problems and evaluate results.  To keep informed of new developments.  To report to management. SANITARIAN & STAFF RESPONSIBILITIES  To supervise matters of personal hygiene.  Maintenance of adequate cleanup.  The elimination of rodents and insects.  The supervision of water supply, sewage, and waste disposal.  To supervise sanitation and health in the company owned lunch room  Maintain the sanitation of rest rooms and toilets.  Check general plantkeeping.  Supervise sanitary storage of raw and finished products. 15 PLANT INSPECTION  Company or auditing bodies may conduct the inspection.  The inspection at the plant level should be made daily.  The most important part of the inspection is a written report filed with plant management.  By making inspections and particularly by outside groups, areas that may have been overlooked by local personnel can be noted.  The inspection should include the outside as well as the inside of the factory.  A written report should be made in all observed conditions listed as satisfactory, needs improvement or unsatisfactory.  There should be a manual containing the minimum standards. 16 SANITATION EVALUATION Physical cleanliness  This is the absence of visual product waste, foreign matter, slime, etc. Chemical cleanliness  This is the freedom from undesirable chemicals. Contamination could occur from cleaning compounds, germicides, pesticides, etc., which might be left on the product and on the equipment. In general, these can be easily corrected by proper washing and rinsing. Microbiological cleanliness  This is probably the most dominant factor in sanitation today, and of course, it is controlled by the amount of microorganisms that may be present on the product, in the equipment, building and people. These can and must be controlled through proper sanitary cleanups. 17 SANITATION SUPPLIERS  You have a right to expect certain things from suppliers.  These are necessary services and should not be taken lightly.  Your chemical supplier can survey your plant to begin the organisation of your cleaning program.  He can outline specific cleaning methods, products and exact amounts, times, and temperatures.  He can set up portion control and help outline who does what job.  In most cleaning programs, labour amounts to more than 90% of the total cost. A cleaning material supplier can give good advice on efficient use of the cleaning crew.  The supplier representative can be your quality control “watch-dog” and cost “controller” with his regular and on-call service.  The two important items are highest quality results at proper and reasonable total cost.  The supplier can provide control and feeding equipment, engineering services, technical assistance, laboratory services, and sound planning for future needs. 18 SANITATION PROGRAM  Regular performance reviews for the sanitation crew will help set high goals of quality.  Training in the sanitation program is of utmost importance.  Training and retraining should be undertaken continuously. The trainer should also be trained on, at least, an annual basis.  A few items to follow in any training program:  Break down each job into components to instruct.  Take the important things first.  Stress the repetitive situations so that people will be able to do best the things that they called upon to do the most and try to get people to think about what they are doing.  Get people into the habit of checking to see that things are operating as they should be and looking to see if the equipment is really clean. 19 SANITATION PROGRAM  Everyone, including the owner through the lowest paid person in the organisation, has a moral and legal obligation to perform all operations in clean surroundings and with due regard to the basic principles of sanitation.  Further, the plant manager has obligations to uphold sanitary standards in common practices for food handling establishments. 20 Any Questions ? 21