I really need some help. We process cooked meats at my facility. We have two high risk rooms (cooked meats) separated by a low risk room (raw meat). The products are in sealed pouches that we put on racks with wheels. The problem is the racks need to go from one high risk room to the other high risk room. We would like to keep them on the racks and move them through the low risk room. We thought about putting a tote liner over the racks when they are moved. We also thought about putting fenders over the wheels or making the bottom of the rack a solid piece to stop any splashing from the ground. The only concern with a solid bottom is air flow when cooling or freezing. So what about putting empty cook pans on the bottom shelf (picture of cook pan attached)? I see a problem with the tote liners. A team member from the high risk side would put the liner over the rack and I would think the low risk team member moving the rack would take the liner off, because the low risk team member touched the liner. Does anyone see an issue with this.
Our other concern is the amount of tote liners we would have to use, money. Now if the cooked product is in a sealed pouch do you think we still need to put a tote liner over the rack? If there isn't a liner would sanitizing the pouches before they go in the high risk room be enough? I could do some test on this as part of my risk assessment. The racks would have to move about 120 feet through the low risk room, pretty much a straight shot and the area the rack will travel is about 10-15 feet wide with equipment and team members working on both sides. The floor is wet most of the time. I added a picture of the rack with the pouches on them. Like I said the pouches are fully sealed and product is cooked in the pouch. We did think about taking the pouched product off the racks and putting them in a tote with lid to move them but that adds more time and money. We will do what we need to do but I wanted to see what all of you might have to say about this. Thanks for the help.