Week 4 Contamination & Cross Contamination Prevention - We've Got SALSA Sussed

 

Week 4 Contamination & Cross Contamination Prevention

·         Layout & Flow - Site Plan

·         Meat Species Segregation

This is a big section of SALSA as it covers so much. For this reason, I am going to break it down into the following:

Week 4 (this week) Layout and flow – site plan Meat Species segregation	Week 5 Allergens – this is always a hot topic, lots to talk about and is so important to fully understand. My favourite topic as I am a little bit of a geek!
Week 6 Glass & Hard Plastic Metal Control – including metal detection	Week 7 Wood Control Chemical contamination prevention

Layout and flow – what do you need to show your SALSA auditor?

What you need: Site plan

Try to attain a site plan from your landlord, or draw one yourself, either is fine, as long as it is a good representation of your site. You need to document your different storage, production, staff facility and changing areas etc. 

You could also use your process flow diagram from your HACCP plan to assist in getting this right. Also, walk through the flow of the site from goods in all the way through to dispatch, to make sure it is all documented correctly.

It is also a great idea to draw on where the storage areas are for the following:

• ·         Fridges
• ·         Freezers
• ·         Allergen ingredient storage
• ·         Ambient non allergen ingredients storage
• ·         Food contact packaging storage
• ·         Chemicals storage

Once you have got your site plan right, it should be easier for you to understand and show the route all of everything entering the site, the route it has to flow through to take it to its storage location. And from storage, when it is to be used in production, the route it takes to get to its place of preparation, then packing, storage, dispatch and whatever steps your site might have in-between.

Next step is to draw the movements, using colour coding is a good idea.

It is better to put all movement colour coding onto one plan, then it should become clear where you have many areas of crossover of movement. These are the areas at the highest risk of cross contamination occurring. It means you either need to rethink and re-route the movement if you are able to, or put controls in place such as production planning,  segregation and hygiene practices to reduce the risk of cross contamination occurring.

The main reason for cross contamination occurring, is by people. Therefore, having suitably located hand wash basins and sanitiser units is essential.

Meat Species Segregation – what do you need to show your SALSA auditor?

You need to show the auditor a procedure for segregation of meat species – stating how you control it. This could be included in your Contamination & Cross Contamination Prevention Procedure. Segregation will also have to be reviewed by the auditor practically on the site walk thorough to show it working in practice.

If you are handling more than one species of meat on your premises and it is going into separate products, then you need to have clear segregation in storage and production. This means, for example if you are producing chicken pies, lamb pasties and beef wellingtons, you would have to have three separate areas.

If this is not possible, you will have to have specified preparations and production times for the products to be made with clear time segregation and hygiene and cleaning practices carried out in-between.

If your all of your finished products are going to contain all meat species you handle, such as a beef chicken and lamb pie, then segregation practices are not necessary.

In Storage

Have specific shelves which are labelled up for the specific meat species so that staff know exactly where it should be stored.

Have the chiller organised, with dedicated shelving which is labelled to help staff, to prevent cross contamination from any different species from dripping onto the product below on shelves. If you decant any meat, you could have dedicated colour coded containers to store the different species in. 

CHILLER STORAGE

Train staff all of the ‘meat speciation segregation in storage’ rules.

You should also continue the segregation of the different species as much as you can, in finished product storage as well. Obviously, keeping in mind ‘Raw / Cooked’ segregation as well.

In production

Ideally, having segregated areas (different rooms) for handling each meat species such as chicken, and then a separate area for beef and so on, for however many species you handle is best practice.

However, this might be quite hard to achieve depending on the size of your production facility, so there are ways around this if it is not a viable option in your site.

If you can’t have segregated rooms, then having partitioning by means of plastic curtains or room dividers is another option. You can still have specified preparation surfaces, dedicated equipment and utensils for each area. Colour coding utensils and any equipment you can is a good idea, so they don’t get mixed up when being cleaned.

If partitioning is not feasible, then production planning for the different meat species being handled needs to be put in place, with a clearly defined full clean down in-between.

Equipment and utensils used for the handling and preparation of different meat species, should be colour coded if possible and dedicated to the meat species.

If you cannot have segregated equipment or utensils, then then production planning for the different meat species being produced needs to be put in place, with a clearly defined full clean down of equipment, utensils and areas, in-between. The cleaning will need to be validated to ensure the chemicals and method you use is sufficient, and all cleaning needs to be verified by a manager or supervisor before the next production begins.

For cleaning validations, please see the section below.

It is also a good idea to have different colour coded aprons or uniform for handling meat too. The food handlers should never cross over to the different species areas, as this could cause cross contamination.

Production Process Documentation

For each product, you should have some form of recipe processing document, with the method of how to make the product and equipment settings etc.

It would be a good idea to add the specific rules of how to handle the meat species, where it has to be processed, any time segregation rules, equipment or utensils to use and PPE to wear on this recipe processing document so it is clear to all staff members.

Cleaning Regimes for meat species

A lot of meat handling sites have species testing or hygiene swabbing in place to make sure they are removing all traces throughout their cleaning process. This is especially important if you do not have a segregated area or equipment and utensils, to be able to produce the product.

Cleaning validations can be done with your chemical company if they provide this service. You need to decide the chemicals and methods, then carrying out swabbing before and after the cleans to prove your chemicals and methods work. If not, adjust them accordingly, then try the swabbing again until you get it right. Document your validations.

Make sure all cleaning is recorded and verified, that it has been cleaned to the correct standard, and that the swabbing has been completed, and results are acceptable prior to moving on to the production of the next product.

Any assistance with setting up swabbing regimes, please do not hesitate to contact me for help!

On that note, that is the end of this section. Please do not hesitate to ask any questions.

Be careful and stay safe!

Ruth

Ruthshawconsultingltd@gmail.com

07732 966 836