Help with glass breakage procedure

Hi there!!

Could any body please help me? I work at a meat processor plant and need to write a glass breakage procedure, but having some difficulties with it, Thanks in advance!!!

Becky

Hi Becky,


Your glass policy can be simple and short. You should cover points as below.
1. Once glass breakage is reported What will your action?

You can say if it is in product zone than production will be stoped and QA person and department supervisor will determine limit (Area limit)of cleaning process. Product effected with the breakage. What you will do with the effected product. For example: glass in warehouse breaks than your risk is low as all the raw material bags will be sealed. Your corrective action can be taking pallete out cleaning the bag and transfering the bag on new pallet so no possible glass can remain on bags.


2. How you will be cleaning?


Removing big glass with brooms or vaccume and than washing with plenty of water to remove small particles of glass.



Once you cover this your are done. It can be just one page log.



Regards

Dhaval

Hi Becky,

When I was updating my glass policy found the below article. I thought you may find it interesting too.

https://www.aibonline.org/newsletter/Magazine/Winter2005/9Glassplastic.pdf.

Hi there!!

Could any body please help me? I work at a meat processor plant and need to write a glass breakage procedure, but having some difficulties with it, Thanks in advance!!!

Becky

Hi

A Glass Breakgae Procedure should read along the following lines

All activites and production cease in affected area immediately
Nobody is allowed to leave the area (to stop glass being brought elsewhere) and nobody can enter the area (with exception of QA and perhaps a manager)
QA must be informed and they have to asesss the situation, depending on how bad the breakage is the following is done
Any product or food materials including packaging that may be contaminated is dumped (if in doubt, throw it out)
Any person in the vicinity of the breakage and contaminated must remove protective clothing and dump
The area must be thoroughly cleaned
Any squeegees, brushes, shovels used for clean up must then be dumped
A full inspection by the QA must take place
Once everthing is right, only then can production recommence
A detailed report must be made by the QA detailing what happened, corrective actions etc

Bear in mind that two breakages will never be the same and all of the above may not be necessary e.g. if a small bulb broke in a corner well away from the line, you probably will not have to dump product or protective clothing; the QA is responsible for risk assesing the incident and overseeing the actions.

Hi Becky,
May I recommend that you have a Glass and Hard Plastic Policy.
All Glass in your facility should be protected.
If not, covered with fine gage metal mesh fabric.
Should glass break, it is a good idea to have a glass breakage form to fill out.
Where, When, Why are all questions to be answered.
A damage assessment and cordoning the area off would be corrective actions.
Special attention on Food Contact Surface and Primary Packaging glass contamination.
All members of your Food Safety Team should approve and endorse the policy with their signatures.

Good Luck,
Ray

Purpose.



To ensure that effective procedures are in place to prevent contamination of food products and food contact surfaces from glass, hard plastic and wood.



Frequency.



At all times.




Responsibility


All personnel.




Procedure


1. General requirements.

- The QA manager maintains Registers of Glass and Hard Plastic for all areas of the site.

- Production supervisors are responsible to notify the QA Manager of any changes to the Registers.

- Audits for monitoring the condition of glass and hard plastic items within the production floor (FOR FS010 - Glass & Hard Plastic Audit Record) take place on a departmental basis and their frequency is determined by a risk assessment (FOR FS009 - Glass & Hard Plastic Risk Assessment Form). The introduction of new equipment, or changes to existing equipment are reviewed to ensure that glass is whenever practical, eliminated.

- All lighting in production areas is protected with the use of plastic sleeves or defusers.

- The use of wood, plastic and glass is prohibited as much as possible within the site. Raw materials are not delivered in glass containers. Any exceptions should be approved in writing by the QA Manager.

- Employees shall not bring glass bottles or containers into the site.

- Fly killers used in the premises have been identified and a plan of their position has been compiled. No EFK is placed above stored food or working area.

- Fly killers are checked every month for damages and are serviced by the contracted pest control company. Records of their service, are kept by the QA department.

- All utensils used by the personnel, are checked prior commencing work for their condition, in order to avoid contamination (FOR FS011 - Pre work Utensils Daily Audit Report).



NOTE

Bulbs of lights or EFK’s are changed only outside production hours, in order to minimise contamination of products by breakage. When replacement of a bulb has taken place, the responsible engineer should contact the production Mgr on site to request cleaning of surrounding areas (if required) and to inform him/her for completion of the job. If during bulb replacement a breakage will take place, then the glass breakage procedure will be initiated as described below.



2. Action in the event of glass/ hard plastic breakage.



- Stop all machinery and equipment in the affected area and instruct all personnel to remain in position until further notice. Movements of personnel shall be restricted in and out that area. Inform the Production Manager or a supervisor for the incident.



Note: The person who spots the incident, remains at that area and does not move around, in order to avoid further contamination.



- The area within 10m radius of the breakage must be effectively isolated and thoroughly searched for any glass fragments (equipment and machinery included)

- The affected area shall be cleaned thoroughly and any glass remains shall be disposed in a safe manner.



Note: Vacuum cleaners are not used for glass clean-up operations unless dedicated to this task and marked accordingly.



- Equipment used for cleaning the affected area, shall be cleaned thoroughly at the end in order to avoid further contamination. Dedicated equipment for cleaning glass is preferred. For the same reason, cleaners involved shall change their overalls. Shoes and overall of all personnel leaving the breakage area is checked to avoid contamination.

- All cleaning equipment used to remove glass is immediately disposed of with the glass outside the factory.

- The fragments of glass or glass like materials are inspected, and where practical pierced back together to try and determine whether all of the glass has been accounted for.

- The production can restart only after inspecting the area in detail and authorisation of the Production or the QA Manager has been given.

- Food products under suspicion of being contaminated, shall be isolated, segregated, inspected and treated accordingly with the findings.

- The QA Manager shall report any incident of glass breakage using the Glass Breakage / Disposal Report FOR FS008.

A sample of the glass is retained for reference and if needed for further analysis








I hope this will be useful for you.



Cheers

Hi there!!

Could any body please help me? I work at a meat processor plant and need to write a glass breakage procedure, but having some difficulties with it, Thanks in advance!!!

Becky

Hi Becky

Here is an example procedure.

QM 6.9.3c Glass & Brittle Material Breakage Procedure.pdf   200.55KB   1297 downloads

Regards,

Tony

Hi there!!

Could any body please help me? I work at a meat processor plant and need to write a glass breakage procedure, but having some difficulties with it, Thanks in advance!!!

Becky

Feel free to use or modify this.

What do you think Becky?
Some great samples provided there, thanks guys.

Regards,
Simon

As another portion to Becky's question: How are you creating a log for all the glass and brittle plastic within your manufacturing locations? Particularly I am looking for non-food manufacturers for response. We are a packaging manufacturer and to say we have glass and plastic on every piece of manufacturing equipment is an understatement. We are going for SQF certification. Thanks!

As another portion to Becky's question: How are you creating a log for all the glass and brittle plastic within your manufacturing locations? Particularly I am looking for non-food manufacturers for response. We are a packaging manufacturer and to say we have glass and plastic on every piece of manufacturing equipment is an understatement. We are going for SQF certification. Thanks!

Your log and frequency of checks should be based on risk of contamination of your packaging.

Regards,

Tony

This may be helpful to anyone looking for a basic glass clean up procedure. 

 

:spoton:

Can anyone please give me an example of an actual incident report or a corrective action report from a high-risk glass breakage? we have a policy and quarterly inspection form listed with all the glass and brittle items, now I'm looking for corrective action or incident report once the glass breakage has occurred and if product is affected.