Week 6 Contamination & Cross Contamination Prevention: Glass & Hard Plastic & Metal Control - We've Got SALSA Sussed

Week 6 Contamination & Cross Contamination Prevention – Glass & Hard Plastic, and Metal Control

Glass & Hard Plastic, is not really one of my favourite subjects, but only due to the fact I had to go around a very large factory which was just starting up and put together a glass and hard plastic register…. and count every glass or hard plastic object I could find, in every room and on every piece of equipment, needless to say, it took a long time!

Metal control is in two forms, metal control records and metal detection, lots to think about!

What’s coming next…

Week 7 Wood Control Chemical contamination prevention

 

Please see the attached file for getting SALSA sussed…

Glass & Hard Plastic – what do you need to show your SALSA auditor?

What you need:

Glass Control Procedure

Glass & Hard Plastic Register

Glass & Hard Plastic Risk Assessment

Glass & Hard Plastic Audit record

Glass Breakage Procedure

 

Glass Control Procedure

The Glass Control Procedure could form part of your Contamination & Cross Contamination Prevention procedure if you choose to do it that way, or can be a separate procedure. Either way, you need to state how you are to control glass on your site. The purpose of controlling glass is to prevent it from accidently getting into the finished product.

 

All of the things below need to be documented on how you control them on your site.

 

Get rid of Glass!

Ensure you have the least amount of glass on your site as possible! If you remove glass jugs and get raw materials which are not in glass jars, then you are reducing the risk of glass contamination. If you have to have raw materials in glass containers – ensure they are always store on low level shelves to prevent contamination on shelves below if they were to fall and smash.

 

Windows

Ensure you have all of your windows covered in shatterproof coating. Especially the ones which are in production or storage areas.

 

Staff Possessions

If staff wear glasses and they get damaged, they know to report it as an incident for investigation to ensure no glass is in the finished product.

Mobile phones not being permitted into production or storage areas in case they are dropped and smash.

Lighting

We know we can’t get rid of lighting, so we have to control it. Strip light need covering in shatterproof coating. Even the EFK (electronic fly killer) light bulbs. They usually have grey strips around the bulb, but you also need evidence they are coated. All other types of lights can have a cover to protect them, if and when the bulb was to explode. The light coverings are also sometimes a risk of becoming cracked and broken, so these need monitoring.

 

Glass & Hard Plastic Audits

Put into your procedure that you have a glass register and regular audit stating the frequency. As well as checking the glass items on site which are of a high risk of contaminating your finished product – such as directly over open food preparation areas, or open food preparation equipment on a start up record.

 

Glass Breakage

You need to state in your procedure, that you have a Glass Breakage Procedure and staff are trained on it.

 

Incident Reporting

If there is any type of glass breakage, how it should be reported.

 

Glass & Hard Plastic Register, Glass & Hard Plastic Risk Assessment, Glass & Hard Plastic Audit record

 

Glass Register

To complete your glass and hard plastic register, you need to walk through the site – every room, and list what glass and hard plastic you have in the room.

 

Then check each piece of equipment in the room and list what is on the equipment.

 

When you are in the open food production area, it is a good idea to log which glass items are at risk of falling into the open food if they were to break, as it is likely these will be the ones which need checking on a more frequent basis.

 

Risk Assessment

Once your list is complete, you need to assess the risk of each item to define how frequently then need checking. Here is a suggested idea of how to define frequencies based on risk:

 

1.       Is the item directly above where open food is prepared?

a.       Yes = Daily          

b.       No= Move onto the next question:

 

2.       It is an open food area?

a.       Yes = Weekly

b.       No = Move onto the next question

 

3.       Is it a food storage or staff changing area?

a.       Yes = Fortnightly

b.       No = Move onto the next question

 

4.       All other areas = Monthly

 

Of course this is a very simple example and there might be other factors you want to consider, such as moving parts of machinery that have the possibility of breaking the glass accidently in the area too.

 

Glass Audits

Once you have decided on your frequencies, you can add your checks onto a glass and hard plastic audit record, to carry out the physical checks.

 

You may want to add the daily checks of glass to a start up check, as you may have a few other things you want to check on a daily basis, or have a separate daily glass and hard plastic record, however my suggestion is keep the number of records to complete to a minimum, you have enough to do!

 

Obviously if there is a damage when completing any of the checks, this needs to be reported and an incident report completing to document it. An investigation, and corrective and preventive action should follow.

 

Don’t worry, we have a section on how to complete Corrective & Preventive action coming soon….!

 

Glass Breakage Procedure

A clear work instruction for exactly what to do if there is a glass spillage needs to be put into place. You need to think about:

·         stopping production, or whatever activity is happening in the area where the spillage is happening,

·         cordoning it off,

·         removing at risk product or raw material or packaging,

·         putting it to waste,

·         clearing the glass,

·         ensuring all staff change uniforms who were involved in the breakage or clearing it up

·         Getting a manager or supervisor to sign off the area to be put back into use again

·         Completing an incident record to show the full procedure was followed in cases of glass complaints coming through

 

Metal Control – what do you need to show your SALSA auditor?

What you need:

Metal Control Procedure

Knife & Blades Register

Start Up Record

Metal Detection Procedure & Record

 

Metal Control Procedure

The Metal Control Procedure could form part of your Contamination & Cross Contamination Prevention procedure if you choose to do it that way, or can be a separate procedure. Either way, you need to state how you are to control metal on your site. The purpose of controlling metal is to prevent it from accidently getting into the finished product.

 

You need to decide if you are going to use metal detection as a control, or if metal checks will be used instead. Metal detectors are expensive, so you may need to start with detailed metal equipment checks.

 

All of the things below need to be documented on how you control them on your site.

 

Knife & Blade Register & Record

The procedure needs to state that a Knife and Blades register needs to be put into place, so each  item you have can be checked. A lot of businesses etch onto each knife a number, so they know it hasn’t been lost and replaced. When logging blades, this is for equipment such as blenders, to ensure they have not become damaged when processing.

 

The register which logs all knives and blades could technically become your record for the checks. Keep it simple don’t have too many records.

 

Start Up Checks

The other element to metal control, if you do not have a metal detector, is to check each piece of processing equipment you have, where open product at risk of being contaminated by moving parts being damaged or breaking. Such as mixer blades, mincing blades, grinding blades, or any moving parts in machinery, and log each part which has the potential to fall into the product. I would suggest putting these on the daily start up record would be a good idea.

 

Daily start up checks is best practice (and some sites do end of day checks as well), however the frequency is up to you. But, you do have to think that if you were to find broken metal (or glass) parts, potentially you have to put to waste all of the stock produced since the last good check. Unless you find and can account for all of the broken metal of glass parts.

 

Obviously if there is a damage when completing any of the checks, this needs to be reported and an incident report completing to document it. An investigation, and corrective and preventive action should follow.

 

Metal Detection

Deciding on getting metal detection is a great idea if it is affordable to your business.

 

There are many things you need to think about:

·         The type of metal detector you want, there are many out there. There are alarm and belt stop, or rejection arms with bin full sensors, and you can get them with checkweighers included.

·         Ensuring you get the metal detector validated for you size and density of product

·         Getting the test piece sizes correct as per your product – usually the metal detection company can help with the set up and test pieces

·         Reviewing your HACCP document, as metal detection is usually classed as a CCP

·         Annual calibration costs

 

Once you have decided on the machine, it has been installed, validated, calibrated, HACCP updated and you know your test piece sizes, then you need to implement its use through training of all the staff.

 

Staff Training of Metal Detection

Metal Detection is a CCP so staff members should not carry out the checks, unless they have been trained to do so. The same with all other training really, but as it is a critical control point it is of utmost importance. CCP’s should also be retrained every year, no matter what your refresher training frequency for all other training is.

 

Metal Detection Procedures & Record

You will have to do regular metal detection checks whilst running your product. The standard checks are at the start and end of the run, and hourly in-between.

 

This is carried out by passing the different test pieces; SS (stainless steel), NF (non-ferrous) and F (ferrous) through the metal detector separately, to ensure they all get rejected. This is to ensure the detector is functioning correctly, and that if it was metal in a product that was passing through, it would correctly reject that too.

 

Staff also need to know what to do if the test fails and the detector does not reject the test pieces.

 

The usual failed test protocol is to complete a retest 3 times of the test pieces, if successful, then proceed with production. However sometimes sites prefer to get the stock back from the last good check and check it as a precaution, even if the retest is completed successfully.

 

If the retest fails, and the test pieces are still not rejected, then all of product since the last good check would have to be quarantined and put on hold. This is until the metal detector is repaired and confirmed as functioning correctly. OR that it can be tested through a functioning metal detector, if there is another one available on site.

 

All metal detection tests need recording, and any failed tests, corrective actions etc need recording too. You will need a metal detection record to document all of this.

 

If the metal detector finds metal in your product, you must investigate. If this happens, stopping production is necessary and it is also best practice to quarantine since the last good check. You would then have to look for metal in the rejected product and try and find out which part of the process it might have come from. A full investigation would have to be carried out.

 

If the metal detector fails OR you find metal in your product, you must complete an incident record and corrective and preventive action.

 

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