5 replies to this topic

[jaredkkrischel]

Hello,

I work at a bakery of cookies and we have a color coding system for utensils. We use green for any utensil dealing with allergens. We had a BRC trainer in the other day and she said that we should label utensils for specific allergens, instead of using one color for all allergens. The reasoning behind this is just because they are green for allergens, they can still be contaminated with another type of allergen. A milk scoop could be used for eggs or peanut butter for example. Does anyone have any insight on this issue? I know I should do a risk assessment, but I just want some opinions and maybe industry standards.


Thanks a lot.....jaredkkrischel

[GMO]

Hmm. Tricky. In the EU I think we're now up to 14 different allergens which have to be listed (however many sites are nut free which excludes two of them as nut allergies are by far the most common.) I think it's unreasonable though to say you need 12 different colours. Perhaps ask for guidance on what allergens they would like to be separated. Be wary because even if you only have 3 or 4 now, you need to consider more might be introduced tomorrow.

[mgourley]

I would agree. I don't think you can even purchase 12 different colors of utensils. Perhaps "like" allergens could be all one color?

[GMO]

But what are like allergens?

Ok, maybe risk assess this and then go back for advice with a proposal in your back pocket (in case they say "yes, separate them all".

Perhaps have one colour for peanuts and tree nuts, then assess how common the other allergies are in the US. (In the UK we have an allergy association called Allergy UK, there might be another one in the US, try these guys http://www.aaaai.org/)

So say, egg allergy affects one in 10,000 people and soya one in 100 and other allergens are less common than 1 in 10,000 (I have no idea and doubt these numbers are right.) You then have a basis for saying, ok, I will have a colour for nuts, a colour for soya and other allergens will have one colour.

It's also important to think, are you using the same belts and other processing equipment, if the answer is "yes" then it might be a bit of a waste of time.

[jenky]

I am not sure how you group "like" allergens, since you could be putting individuals at risk that have an allergy to one type but not another. Likewise, the complexity of color coding utensils can become overwhelming if you work with many different types of allergens. When you consider it, color coding by allergen type would be mean that each individual tree nut should have its own color, since each tree nut is a different allergen.

At our facility, we do not color code utensils at all. Instead we have a single scoop per ingredient policy. For example, during batching process a scoop is used for ingredient A, then goes to the sink for sanitation. The operator gets a new scoop for ingredient B. We have several utensils on hand in each production room to facilitate quick and efficient production so staff is not tied up washing utensils after each use. We have this practice in place for years and have never been questioned on it by an auditor.

[birmingham2000]

The previous company I worked at had a simple procedure. All allergen scoops were green and were numbered. So for example if we had 5 allergens on site then 5 scoops would be numbered 1-5. A key would be displayed on the wall explain that scoop 1 was for milk, scoop 2 gluten and so on. The scoops were engraved with the numbers, rather than a sticker.