Week 9 Process, Environment & Equipment Control - We've Got SALSA Sussed
Week 9 Process, Environment & Equipment Control
Hi Everyone!
ENVIRONMENTAL TEMPERATURE CONTROLS
The environmental controls on
your site are how you are controlling the environment that you are storing and
handling your raw materials and finished products in.
Therefore, we mean the fridges,
freezers and temperature-controlled rooms you may have in your site to keep
your product safe. We will look at probes, calibration and verification checks
of probes in this section too.
There are further sections on
equipment and maintenance we will discuss, which are coming soon!
What’s coming next…
|
Week 10 PROCESS, ENVIRONMENT & EQUIPMENT CONTROL Week 10 – Weight Control – Minimum Weight, Average Weight
& Quantity Control Week 11 – Environmental Sampling Plan - Swabbing Regimes
& Water Testing |
Environmental Control – what do you need to show your
SALSA auditor?
An overarching Environmental
Control Procedure is a good idea, so that you can demonstrate your
understanding of your controls, and what areas of your site they are required.
In addition, depending on your site, the following may apply:
·
Goods In Record - Temperature Checks
·
Fridge & Freezer Records
·
Temperature Controlled Production Areas /
Cold Room – Temperature Checks
·
Dispatch Vehicle Temperature Records
·
Probe Verification Records
·
Probe Calibration Certificates
We have to consider each of the
temperature-controlled environments where our ingredients and finished products
are handled on site.
·
Incoming delivery vehicles
·
Chilled Storage
·
Frozen Storage
·
Temperature controlled production areas
·
Dispatching vehicles
Environmental control will depend entirely
upon the type of product you are producing and the ingredients that you use.
We all understand that we need
fridges, freezers and ambient storage areas for the different types of
ingredients.
This is also true for the delivery
and transportation of the raw materials and finished products. Incoming, and
dispatching.
Some sites which produce chilled
ready-to-eat products or raw meats, have temperature-controlled rooms.
Temperature records need to be taken of these areas too. However, if you cannot
control the temperature in these areas, then we have to control the time
that the ingredients or products are not at chilled temperatures to ensure they
remain safe.
Let’s take a look at each of the
different types of temperature checks and records you could possibly need:
Goods In & Dispatch Temperature
Checks
‘Goods In’ is covered in the ‘Raw
Material Control Section’ of SALSA, and ‘Dispatch’ is also covered in more
detail. They are both future topics. However, I feel it is important to chat
through the temperature control elements of both topics here as well.
Goods In: You need to check
that the ingredients have arrived at a safe temperature, as it is the first
part of the process where YOU are taking control of them. You need to check the
ingredients when they are delivered to you, so that you know that you KNOW that
they are safe when they arrive with you. Check the temperature of the
ingredients themselves. If the temperatures are all in a safe range, then just
record this. But if there is a problem, you can also check the environment they
have been transported in, which is the vehicle temperature.
When you check vehicle temperature,
most temperature-controlled vehicles have a digital display. It is better to
check it before the back of the vehicle is opened, so you get a true reading.
As soon as you open the vehicle doors the temperature will obviously increase.
Vehicles usually have a print out
of the temperature for the vehicles journey. You can request this from the
transportation company if there are every any disputes.
You are within your rights to
reject a delivery if it is not correct on arrival.
Probes
To take ingredient or product temperatures,
you need either an infrared or between-pack probe for goods in or dispatch. These
probes are preferable to needle probes, as needle probes may damage the
ingredient, finished product or pierce the packaging. This would not be good
practice. If you have to use a needle probe, then make sure you clean the probe
with sanitiser probe-wipes, before and after use. If you have damaged the
packaging or pierced ingredients, then you would have to consider them as
opened products, and use those ingredients within their opened shelf life, i.e.
‘once opened use within X no of days’.
Temperatures
The core temperature of chilled
foods, as we know should be 5ºC
degrees, certainly, no higher than 8ºC
to accept. As previously mentioned, we cannot take the core temperature, as we
would damage the ingredient if we did. Check the external pack surface, or
between pack temperature instead.
The core temperature of frozen
food ingredients should be -18ºC,
however acceptable external pack should be no more than -12ºC.
There are other ingredients which
have specific temperatures for storage, such as meats and vacuum-packed
products. Therefore, you need to check industry guidelines, to check your
products and ingredients comply with the regulations.
Dispatch
If you are dispatching chilled or
frozen products, you need to check the temperature when the products leave your
building. This is to prove they were safe when they left your site. You also
need to check the vehicle, to make sure during transporting, the food will
remain chilled or frozen. You need to document this, so that you have evidence.
This is really useful if you ever have disputes with customers over
temperature. And also, with the transportation companies you use.
Fridge & Freezer
Temperature Records
We need to check that our fridges
and freezers are functioning correctly on a set frequency.
Temperature Danger Zone
We know the danger zone for food
is between >8ºC to 63ºC. That is the ideal temperature range
for bacteria to grow. We need to check our fridges and freezers are functioning
correctly on a set frequency, to make sure our food ingredients are always
being kept at a safe temperature.
Fridges need to be running at 5ºC or below to make sure the food
inside it does not increase to over 8ºC
Freezers need to run at <-18ºC.
Frequencies…
We need to base the frequency of
the temperature checks on risk…..
For example:
Say that you decide that only one
temperature check of your fridge per day is sufficient. The time of your check
is 8am as soon as you arrive on site. You have a fully stocked fridge and it
stops functioning at 9am. By the time you complete your next check the next
day, you find the fridge is running at 15ºC.
You check the fridge temperature and the ingredient temperature inside the
fridge, and every ingredient is between 9ºC
at 15ºC. ALL of the stock in
that fridge needs putting to waste. You cannot prove how long the food has been
out of a safe temperature range.
That is a large cost for a
business. So, you can understand the necessity for frequent temperature checks!
If you are on site during the day
only, standard practice is usually 3 times per day.
If you are on site overnight as
well, it is advisable to increase frequencies. The ideal and best practice
checking frequency to have, is every 4 hours.
Some sites have automated alarm
systems set up on fridges and freezers, so that if temperatures go out of the
correct temperature range, an alarm sounds or a text message goes out to the
responsible person. This is ideal if you are not on site every day. I believe
there are some really cost-effective solutions out there, so check them out:
1.
https://hanwell.com/shop/hanwell-icespy/hanwell-icespy-temperature-sensors/
3.
https://temperaturemonitoring.co/
Completing Temperature Checks
of your Fridges and Freezers
You need to check the digital displays of your fridges and freezers, but in addition, you need to check some of the ingredients within the fridges and freezers. The reason for this, is that sometimes the temperature displays stop functioning.
When taking temperatures take the reading from the digital display and record it.
Once per day, take a temperature probe (needle probe) and take the temperature of something stored in your fridge, to confirm the fridge is functioning correctly. Record it. One way to do this without piercing an ingredient, is to store a container of water in the fridge, and take the temperature of that each day. Always change the water frequently, and always use probe wipes every time, after using a probe. Probe wipes have sanitiser on them, so they clean the probe adequately.
A good starting point for a temperature record sheet is detailed below:
Temperature Controlled
Production Rooms
You may be at a site which has temperature-controlled rooms. So you need to control these temperatures to make sure your product stays safe whist you are handling it.
Some examples of products which may have temperature-controlled production areas are; sandwich making factories, raw and cooked meat sites, fresh cream cake areas, ready meals, any ‘ready to eat’ chilled product.
For these types of production facilities, you need to have a temperature record for each room, in the same way that you would a fridge or freezer, to monitor that it doesn’t go over the temperature range you have set for it.
If your site does not have
a temperature-controlled room, but you are handling chilled products,
then you would have to control the amount of time the chilled products
are not in a chilled environment. Do not let this be any longer than 90
minutes, and make sure it is recorded so that you can prove it. Record the time
and temperature out of chiller, then time and temperature back into the
chiller.
Probe Calibration &
Verification
Calibration
Calibration of probes is done by an external company. They are professionals at testing and adjusting probes to make sure they are reading the correct temperatures. They will issue you with a certificate of calibration which lasts one year. Calibration of the probe annually is validating it is working.
The calibration company should be
UKAS accredited, and the certificate should have the UKAS logo and the
calibration companies UKAS number on it. EG:
You always need at least one calibrated probe on site to use as a reference probe. You can check all of your other probes are functioning correctly against the calibrated probe.
Verification
On a set frequency, such as weekly, you should verify that all of the probes on your site are working, by testing them against your calibrated reference probe. All other probes should read the same as the calibrated reference probe or at least within 0.1ºC to 0.3ºC, tolerance. Make sure you take this tolerance into account when taking temperatures.
There are many methods of doing this, the most basic is doing a boiling water test, and an iced water test. Putting both the reference probe and the other probes, one at a time into the hot water first, then doing them all in the cold water. This is to ensure they are reading both cold and hot temperatures accurately. Some people boil a kettle to get 100ºC, and get a container of iced water to get as near to 0ºC as possible. Personally, I think this boiling kettle test is a bit dangerous, so as long as your other probes are measuring the same temperature when being submerged into the hot water, we know they are functioning correctly.
Make sure you document all of the probe tests, so that you have evidence that you have checked them all.
Test Caps
Using test caps to check probes is another method of verifying probes are functioning. You can purchase these on line, but you need to have the correct type of probe to go with it. There are many different temperature caps you can get, so when choosing, I’d say, always go for a 100ºC and a 0ºC, then over and above that, if you wanted the caps which are closest to the temperature you have to test for within your process.
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
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