4.7 Staff Facilities / designated eating areas

It pains me to ask these questions but such is the pettiness I have to deal with on a daily basis...

We have a room where breaks and lunch are taken (no canteen facilities so sandwiches and snacks brought in). At the moment some people insist on sitting in their cars for breaks and lunch. Is this permissible? Note we have low risk products (flavours etc) and currently they do not change out of overalls for lunch and breaks.

Also, we have now made the "nut-free" announcement and I get questions like, "If my car is left off site and I change out of work wear, can I sit outside for my peanut butter sandwiches?" Why anyone would even consider this is beyond me but anyway, I guess officially there is not much I could do about that one.

Hi D-D,

I would recommend you start requiring your employees to change out of their work clothes/protective clothing before they go on breaks, I don't see an issue with where they spend their breaks... The rule is that no food or drink may be consumed in areas where (unprotected) food is stored, prepared or processed. With regards to your 'nut-free' status, a stringent and strict protective clothing policy probably works better than to try and interfere with your employee's (and their families') lives.

Educate your employees about food allergies and the potential consequences of cross-contamination of 'nut-free' labelled food for allergy sufferers - and the smart questions and remarks will (hopefully) stop without you having to take more formal action. I suppose you have a policy for mandatory hand washing before starting work and after return from breaks and a strict control of protective clothing in place anyways. I don't see a difference between employees reporting to work in the morning after sitting in their car (maybe after having nutty bread or a cereal with nuts for breakfast) and them having lunch in their car - after all: who guarantees that they (or their families) do not eat nuts in their cars after work or on weekends. A strict control of allergen contamination with protective clothing is indicated in your operation, anyways. Face masks may help to minimise introduction of allergen material from employee's mouths and faces.

Hope this helps.

Matt

Thanks Matt; interesting input though a slightly mixed message compared to other discussions on here. Namely as we have no nuts in our processes, I went with the "go nut-free as a company" angle to remove the risk completely though as expected and discussed here it gets some people worked up (over nothing in my opinion - and that of my conscientious, supportive colleagues).
As mentioned, we do not currently change out of work wear and I do not see a need to do so with the nut/sesame-free policy in place as they are low risk products in closed processes although I need to get more advice on that when we are closer to being audit-able. Also, are they going to change for a 15 minute break when the car is parked just outside? It's not going to happen, which is why I am thinking about insisting on the designated break/lunch area be used if cars in work wear are unacceptable.

I would say getting into your car in workwear is unacceptable and if you're making it nut free, that includes the car park, it just keeps it simple. Also by permitting people to eat in their cars, they are unlikely to have kept their lunch chilled; ok, fine for peanut butter sandwiches but not fine if they have a yoghurt.

I agree with the PP that there is a level of education to do here but there is also a level of just saying JFDI and man the f--- up. Is it really such a hardship to do without nuts for your working day? Is it worth losing your job over, losing your company business, perhaps killing someone? REALLY?

We're a nut free site supplied by some factories with enclosed processes and they had a slightly lax nut policy when I last audited them. I asked them to tighten it up as we specifically state our products are nut free so that will encourage nut allergy sufferers to eat our products. My conscience will not let me sleep at night if someone died just because someone fancied a Snickers bar. I think particularly as people eat in their protective clothing a nut free site policy is the way to go. I mean loads of warehouses have them now, it's becoming the norm.

JFDI

Not heard that one before and after a brief Google, it captures the whole message superbly! I must admit I almost lost it completely with one of them the other day...

I like the JFDI ;-)

Personally, I think just clarifying the rules should do it: no eating in cars ... You could also slightly change the rule and say that no nuts or nut containing product should be eaten during the whole work period.