Hair/Beard Nets in Grain Facility
Hello all,
I'm new to posting, but have lurked the site for some time, so if im in the wrong forum let me know.
I work for what most would call a high capacity grain cleaning and packaging facility, were we take in grain straight from the farmers feild like wheat, beans and flax, remove the contaminants like weed seeds and sell the cleaned products to companies who then turn the product into flour.
So the situation, my problem is during our initial certification audit for sqf, we had a NC for hair. The problem being that we wear hairnets under our baseball caps, the caps have hair that can fall out and it move the hairnet out of place, and we don't wear beardnets because, truthfully no one will work here anymore if we did. So were got an nc for wearing hair nets but not beard nets, i can risk analyize out the hair/beard nets completely because of the product nature, the process environment and enclosed equipment, but it looks good for customers when they come around to see us wearing them.
My question is has anyone every been able to justify wearing some hair restraints, and not others solely for asthetic reasons, or should i go full bore either way?
Any help would be great on this.
Hello all,
I'm new to posting, but have lurked the site for some time, so if im in the wrong forum let me know.
I work for what most would call a high capacity grain cleaning and packaging facility, were we take in grain straight from the farmers feild like wheat, beans and flax, remove the contaminants like weed seeds and sell the cleaned products to companies who then turn the product into flour.
So the situation, my problem is during our initial certification audit for sqf, we had a NC for hair. The problem being that we wear hairnets under our baseball caps, the caps have hair that can fall out and it move the hairnet out of place, and we don't wear beardnets because, truthfully no one will work here anymore if we did. So were got an nc for wearing hair nets but not beard nets, i can risk analyize out the hair/beard nets completely because of the product nature, the process environment and enclosed equipment, but it looks good for customers when they come around to see us wearing them.
My question is has anyone every been able to justify wearing some hair restraints, and not others solely for asthetic reasons, or should i go full bore either way?
Any help would be great on this.
Generally speaking, persons working in food processing areas or anywhere that food is exposed must wear hair restraints. That includes facial hair. The type of restraint needed to comply with regulations might depend on the area where employees are working and also the regulations that govern your workplace.
Personally I think the baseball caps should either be banned or entirely covered by a hair net. Also I would require a beard restraint for any facial hair more than 48 hours old.
Matthew
If you want SQF, you are going to need to get rid of the caps and move to hair and beard nets. They said we'd lose our entire maintenance crew when we went from baseball caps to hairnets, yet no one left.
YMMV
The risk with baseball caps is also they could be put on the head without the mob cap or hair net then also put on the head with it on, transferring hair to the outside of the mob cap or hair net.
There's no way to put mob caps over baseball caps and fully enclose hair. Just bite the bullet, JFDI!
I don't see baseball caps worn in food manufacturing areas anymore. They don't fit with food safety standards including the requirements of the SQF Code:
'11.3.3 Clothing'
'11.3.3.1 Clothing worn by staff engaged in handling food shall be maintained, stored, laundered and worn so as not to present a contamination risk to products.'
'11.3.3.3 Clothing including shoes, shall be clean at the commencement of each shift and maintained in a serviceable condition.'
Regards,
Tony
Hair, if it does fall into product is a very persistent contaminant - it will survive all types of processing including baking and cooking.
From personal experience I can recount instances where a strand of hair was found in final product (crispbreads) made from grains despite a high focus on wearing of hair restraints during all stages of production - the possible source being from the supplier of the whole grain ingredients.
So I highly recommend you include both hairnets and beard covers as part of your GMP program. You need to include control of where and when these haircovers are worn, how they are worn (covering all hair) and when put on and taken off, why (training) and also Baseball caps ...
Dont forget hair can fall onto clothing when hair restraints are removed, then this hair falls onto product despite hairnets. So hairnets need to be put on before outer clothing and outer clothing needs to be removed before hairnets are removed.
cheers
David