Week 40 Procedures & Work Instructions - We’ve got SALSA sussed..!

We’ve got SALSA sussed..!

It’s a short and sweet topic this week, a quick read! Important little nuggets of information to keep you on the right line.

Week 40 Procedures & Work Instructions

Are your Procedures and Work Instructions available to staff to refer to if they need to, perhaps they stored or displayed in a location near to where the staff carry out the tasks they relate to?

Are your Procedures and Work Instructions clear step by step instructions which are easy to follow?

Have you written clear and concise CCP Procedures?

Are the Procedures and Work Instructions in the right languages for the staff members you employ?

 

All of the above are questions you need to ask yourself to ensure you have got this section of SALSA right!

Let’s check out how to tackle this one!

 

What’s coming next…

Week 41 Premises

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Procedures & Work Instructions - what do you need to show your SALSA auditor?

  •         Procedures & Work Instructions are available for Staff!
  •         CCP Procedures have been written for all CCP’s you have identified within your HACCP Plan.
  •         All procedures handled by staff are clean documents (laminating is a good idea to assist with this)
  •         Procedures are written in the correct languages for the staff who work for you.

 

This section of SALSA is a reminder that if you haven’t written CCP Procedures, you should have!

 

For the rest of this section, it does not require you to write anything new as such. This section is reviewing the documents you should already have in place, that they are in the right place for staff to access, are understandable, clean and in the right language.

 

Keeping all of the Procedures, Work Instructions, Records etc that you use designed in a similar format will provide familiarity to the staff members who use them. Having a person responsible for writing them can also help with standardising them – refer to ‘Document Control Week 38’.

 

Procedures & Work Instruction Availability

It’s a great idea to have a system in place where you display the Work Instructions, Standard Operating Procedures or CCP Procedures in the location that each task is carried out.

 

The main procedures we would do this with are, for example:

 

·         CCP Procedures

·         CIC’s (Cleaning Instruction Cards)

·         Standard Operating Procedures

·         Recipe Processing Specifications

·         Equipment Settings

 

Having them laminated and put up on the wall is what I would call ‘best practice’.

 

Alternatively, having Procedures in a folder at the point the task is to be carried out is a great idea.

 

If you choose not to have your procedures displayed or available in this way, then you must have them stored elsewhere, where your staff members can access them whenever they need to, so they can refer to them. The reason is for cases where they may forget something and just want to check.

 

CCP Procedures

A CCP Procedure needs to be written for each CCP which you will have already defined in your HACCP Plan. Once written, these must be trained to the relevant staff members. CCP’s must NOT be carried out by anyone who is NOT trained.

 

When writing CCP Procedures, be clear, with ‘Step by Step’ instructions. Using your CCP Summary from your HACCP Plan is a good starting place, then, carry out the CCP check yourself and make sure it is 100% correct.

 

Make sure the CCP Procedures are trained to all staff initially, then refresher trained annually or upon any changes. Carry out CCP observations, or quizzes to test competency of staff members to ensure they are always carrying them out correctly, this is often used as a CCP verification technique.

 

 

Clean Procedures

When we have designated the procedures to specific areas in the facility, as mentioned, it’s a good idea to laminate them if you can. This means they can be easily cleaned.

 

If you do not have the documents laminated, you will need to make sure that they are not becoming dirty themselves, causing a contamination issue of their own! Dirty documents mean dirty hands if they are touched by staff members. Also, ripped pieces of paper can become a physical contamination risk too!

 

Languages

If you have staff working for you whose first language is not English, you need to make sure that they understand written English to be able to follow the procedures you have written!

 

If needed, you will have to get some procedures translated into the correct languages for your staff, to ensure the staff can follow them.

 

Using pictures where you can, will also aid understanding of the procedures. This is great for procedures such as hand washing, personal hygiene, the order of changing into your PPE, colour coding of cleaning equipment.

 

You, as the Business Owner or Manager, have a responsibility to staff, to ensure they know and understand the tasks they must undertake to carry out their role correctly. This is not only a SALSA requirement but also a requirement by law.

 

Now, hopefully, you are confident in your documentation!

 

As everyone is getting ready for returning to some kind or normality, things are getting busier again, so being ready with our documentation is really important. Start as you mean to go on!

 

You know where I am if you need me!

Here to help!

 

Ruth

Ruthshawconsultingltd@gmail.com 

07732 966 836

www.ruthshawfoodsafety.co.uk

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