orful foil strips that move with the wind, also called “daddy long-legs.”
From management’s perspective, pest control represents more
overhead and a big expense. However, it’s important to know that a
lack of pest control could potentially affect the product’s confor-
mance to regulatory Defect Action Levels—the levels of food contami-
nation from sources such as insects, rodents, and other “foreign
matter.” It can also adversely affect microbiological levels in the
product.
“S“Some situations actually invite pests to come feed right at the very areas you are trying to protect.”
more, the motor and some food-contact equipment had been painted
quite some time ago and the paint
was now flaking intermittently into
the wash tank. The frayed belt, drip
pan and the flaking paint pose what
seem like obvious maintenence issues,
but sometimes it takes a set of outside
eyes to see what others who walk by
every day miss.
Equipment located outside the facility can also create food safety issues. For example, upon examination, an outdoor produce-washing
system was found to have hollow framework with open ends which can
harbor insects and microbes. Additionally, the single conveyor belt on
the washing system was severely frayed. Frayed belts can never be thoroughly cleaned and can create a microbiological issue as well as a foreign material concern for the finished product. Sitting above the
washing system was a motor with no oil-drip collection pan. Further-
Keeping It Clean Inside
Preventing outside contaminants
from coming inside is of highest importance, yet systems are often not set
up with this in mind. First, it’s essential to be able to distinguish employees assigned to outside non-process
functions and raw material handling
from those assigned to indoor processing responsibilities. Cross-contam-ination by employees that are out of
the assigned work station is a common occurrence. Management needs
Not just off the shelf…
