The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting normal
operations for countless food and beverage manufacturers. Limited staff from
illness, layoffs or social distancing requirements, additional sanitation
requirements, changes in the level of production (up or down), and even facility
shutdown have resulted in fewer resources and less focus on food safety
sanitation. Manufacturers have a legal obligation to produce safe food and it
is therefore essential that routine sanitation practices continue and that
additional sanitation is performed after a period of shutdown. Employers have a
legal obligation to ensure the safety of their workforce, including minimizing
their risk of COVID-19 infection.
Sanitation for Food Safety
Below is a checklist of food safety precautions to take
before reopening your facility.
Review your Sanitation SSOPs and ensure you have the right
tools for the job
- Review
Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures (SSOPs) for required tools and
equipment
- Review
your color-coding plan
- Check
all shadow boards, tool racks, and storage locations for tools that need
to be replaced
- Check
all soap/sanitation chemicals to ensure they protect your facility and
employees
- Make sure you have ample, touch-free hot water sinks/wash-down stations for hand washing
- Ensure all entrances to sensitive food prep areas have sanitizing foot baths to reduce contamination from shoes and boots
Check individual work stations to ensure compliance
- Follow
CDC/OSHA guidelines for proper social distancing and physical
barriers/partitions
- Ensure there is 6 foot distancing both beside and across from each worker
- Ensure
that all tools are present in their correct areas
- Make
sure tools match the established color-coding plan
- Ensure
you have adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) including gloves,
masks/face shields, gowns, and shoe covers
Discard any tools that are damaged or that are in poor
condition
- Damaged
tools can harbor microorganisms and allergens in deep gouges or cracks
- Pieces
or materials may break off in production areas, causing foreign-body
contamination
- Damaged
tools can injure employees
Clean brand new tools before their first use in your
facility
- Even
new tools could be contaminated with allergens, microbes, or foreign
bodies
- Manufacturers
do not sanitize or sterilize tools before they are shipped to end-users
unless they specifically state otherwise
- Even
tools that are individually wrapped should be cleaned before their first
use
Clean existing tools
- Tools
that are not properly sanitized and dried after use or prior to shutdown
may become a source of contamination on re-use
- Cleaning
and material handling tools themselves can be vectors for pathogens
Clean the nooks and crannies
- Include
spots or areas within the facility, equipment, or tools that are
hard-to-reach or inspect
- They
are much more difficult for the sanitation crew to properly clean and disinfect.
It’s critical to carefully clean: gaskets, hollow tubes and supports, rough
welds, gaps in equipment, dead-ends, and joints and crevices
Sanitation for COVID-19 Control
This cleaning should be done on an ongoing and frequent
basis when the plant is back in operation:
- Surfaces
that are commonly touched by employees should be cleaned more frequently,
including: handrails, door push plates, turnstiles, utensils, cart and
bucket handles, taps, hoses, cleaning tools, machine control panels, scales,
and bulk ingredient bins
- Use hygienic scrubbing pads for walls and drain brushes for floor drains where bacteria can spread unchecked
- Consider
adding a unique color to your color-coding plan to specifically clean
these non-food contact surfaces
- Tools
should also be cleaned between use by different people to lessen the
chance of spreading COVID-19
Train Staff on the Importance of Food Safety and COVID-19
Safety Plans
Training is an important step in building and maintaining a
food safety culture. This applies to general food safety plans and enhanced
COVID-19 safety plans. A culture of food safety includes:
- Strong
leadership that encourages cooperation
- Ongoing
food safety training for employees and higher-ups
- Engaged
and informed employees
- Self-audits
built into the work structure
- An
organizational structure that empowers employees who share responsibility
for and are rewarded for practicing food safety
- A
robust food safety plan that contains preventative measures and controls
- A continuity plan should you have a reduction in
staff to ensure cross-training
How can we help?
We are dedicated to providing the highest quality hygienic cleaning and material handling tools to the most critical work environments. Please reach out to us at 800-672-8119 or via our contact form with any questions about how to best evaluate your current sanitation practices and tools.
Union Jack -- Your Partner in FSMA /HACCP Compliance
Keeping it Clean Since 2006
