Week 7 Contamination & Cross Contamination Prevention: Wood Control & Chemical Contamination Prevention - We've GOT SALSA Sussed

Week 7 Contamination & Cross Contamination Prevention – Wood Control & Chemical Contamination Prevention

Wood control is relatively simple, although we cannot prevent it all from being on our sites due to pallets being made from wood.

Chemical control has 2 elements to it, the type of chemicals you use for cleaning on your site, and the type of chemicals which are intrinsic of the ingredients we purchase to make our products.

What’s coming next…

Week 8, 9 & 10 PROCESS, ENVIRONMENT & EQUIPMENT CONTROL Week 8 Process Control Week 9 Environmental Control Week 10 Equipment Control

 

Please see the attached file for getting SALSA sussed…

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

What you need:

Wood Control Procedure

Having the least amount of wood in your site is essential. Eliminating it in the first place, as much as possible, means you will have to put less control measures in.

 

What is the purpose of eliminating wood? We need to prevent wood breakages such as wood splinters from getting into your finished product.

 

Think about:

·         Wooden boards

·         Utensils such as spoons or utensil handles

·         Wooden shelving or cupboards

·         Wooden surfaces

·         Pallets

 

Wood Control Procedure

The procedure for this is relatively simple one. You need to ensure you have it documented in your procedure that you state how you are going to prevent wood contamination.

 

A statement ensuring elimination of wood as far as possible, then control measures for wood you cannot prevent being on site.

 

Usually, the wood which in non-preventable is pallets. You can request your suppliers to provide you with plastic pallets which are known to get damaged much less. However, this is not always possible and it can come with a higher cost.

 

When pallets first arrive at site, with the deliveries on, that is your first chance to check them to make sure they are not damaged when they arrive.

 

Goods in Procedure for Checking Pallets

In your goods in procedure, you need to document that you will be checking for pallet damage upon arrival. This should be one of your standard goods in checks.

 

If the pallet is intact and no damage or splinters, then you can accept it in.

 

If there is damage evident on the pallet, it could have splintered the boxes, sacks or packaging which your raw materials, (both ingredients and food contact packaging) has been delivered in.

 

Damage by a pallet could have caused physical contamination from the pallet splinters themselves. But it could also have caused microbiological contamination if the pallet was dirty, which is a high possibility. It could have also caused chemical or allergen contamination it the pallet had spills on it, which then contaminated your ingredient when it pierced the packaging.

 

If you were to find this type of damage from a pallet at goods in, you should reject it. You should at least reject the damaged packs, or you may want to reject the whole pallet.

 

NB: we will be tackling Goods In, in more detail in the future in Section 1.6 Control of Raw Materials

 

Pallet Control on Site

Pallets are permitted to be on site in non-open food areas. However, wood should not be permitted into production areas and open food areas. If this can be controlled, and you can keep your pallets out of production, then simply state that in your procedure.

 

Sometimes, we cannot prevent wooden pallets from having to be taken into production areas, if this is the case, we have to control it.

 

To control taking pallets into production areas, you can implement a simple check sheet. You would document on the check, that it is intact on the way into production, then it is intact on the way out. If it gets damaged whilst it is in production, then you need to make sure you can account for the damaged wood, and you can be sure it has not contaminated your finished product. Any damages would require an incident form to be completed, and corrective and preventive action to be carried out, as to how the damage occurred.

 

Chemical Contamination Prevention Control – what do you need to show your SALSA auditor?

What you need:

Chemical Contamination Control Procedure

 

Cleaning & Chemicals

The first part of chemical control is simple, you just need to make sure you are not cleaning in and around where you are making product. You need to make sure that the chemicals used for cleaning do not splash onto open product, or the surfaces that open product is being (or is going to be) prepared on.

 

Its common sense, however, as sites get busier and the cleaning times get tighter, you always need to keep in mind, that the staff members have to have the time to be able to carry out cleaning safely.

 

When planning your production runs, plan the time in for cleaning as well. Keep it realistic too, do not make cleaning be a rush job.

 

The other important thing is to make sure your chemicals are safe for use in a food environment, or safe for use on food contact equipment. To do this you need to get evidence from your chemical supplier on the chemical specification sheet or the COSHH sheet.

 

When you are writing your chemical control procedure, state you are going to put all of the above controls in place and then ensure they are implemented practically, then you have got it covered.

 

Chemical Contamination in Ingredients

Some raw materials have a risk of contamination from chemicals when they are grown such pesticides, heavy metals or mycotoxins. The supplier of these raw materials should make sure they test them in accordance with the legislation:

 

REGULATION 1881/2006 of 19 December 2006 setting maximum levels for certain contaminants in foodstuffs

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32006R1881&from=EN

 

You need ensure that your suppliers are carrying out testing, as your due diligence. The raw material specification should detail the chemical standards, and over and above that you could also ask them for the last chemical testing they have completed on the raw material they are supplying you.

 

Chemical Testing on your Finished Product

You may have to carry out chemical testing on your finished product, depending on what you are producing.

 

For example, baking or fried food requires Acrylamide testing. Or Patulin testing in apple products.

 

Read the regulations, to make sure you are complying. Again, these are:

 

REGULATION 1881/2006 of 19 December 2006 setting maximum levels for certain contaminants in foodstuffs

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32006R1881&from=EN

 

If you are producing baby food, then there are different limits set for certain chemicals including pesticides. Also, the nutritional values of baby food need to be within the regulations. Theses regs are:

 

COMMISSION DIRECTIVE 96 5 EC on processed cereal-based foods and baby foods for infants and young children

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:31996L0005&from=EN

 

COMMISSION DIRECTIVE 2003 13 EC Baby Food Amending 96 5 EC

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2003:041:0033:0036:EN:PDF

 

Sometimes regulations can look a bit complicated, but really you just need to take the relevant bits for the purpose of your raw materials and products.

 

If you need assistance, please feel free to contact me!

 

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