7 replies to this topic

[Food Safe]

I am in the process of implementing HACCP for a centralized Kitchen. Can you please help me out to standardize the colour code for crates used while receiving the Raw material, and after washing/peeling/Chopping. We recieve fruits/vegetables and groceries. Do i need to follow a colour coded system for HACCP? Thank you,

[Mr. Incognito]

You don't HAVE to as far as I know but it's a very common practice to prevent accidental cross contamination.

 

We use red for waste/garbage

blue for food contact

Yellow for equipment that is not direct food contact

orange for maintenance

 

My last color coded system had 8 colors

 

You can make the colors whatever you want as long as you can find the equipment you need in the colors you designated... which isn't too hard searching online.

 

You could use any color for raw just choose colors and designate what they are for.  White/blue are good for food contact but if white is your food contact be careful it doesn't get dirty or stained because they may look bad.

Black/red are good for waste/garbage but make sure they don't get in contact with your equipment / food contact etc.

[Mike Green]

There are no set colours-you can choose what you like as long as it is communicated to all staff-however if you are likely to be employing staff who have been trained elswhere-you may want to stick to the most widely recognised choices to avoid confusion?

 

One last thing to consider... if you are storing raw/unwashed vegetables and then subsequently washed/peeled vegetables in the same colour containers (or the same containers!)-be aware of the possibility of cross contamination 

 

 Regards

Mike

[Snookie]

Colors are often largely part of your process.  In my last plant, white was food contact, Yellow was work in process, Red was allergens, gray was trash, blue was recycling. 

[fgjuadi]

I'm having issues with this right now becuase we use too many color s-   We want to have a color for each allergen, but with 6 of the big 8, that's really eating into choices.  On top of that, a color for non-GMO ingredients, a color for Kosher ingredients, etc.

 

And I'm completely lost as to what color to make something that's non-GMO and has almonds, or something that's Halal and has wheat.  . 

 

Previously, we had a scheme very much like Snookies (white - food contact, blue - walls/non food contact equipment, grey - trash, red allergens), but only having one color for allergens was a problem because the previous allergen might have been different.  We wash allergen tools and equipment between every use, but that wasn't enough for our last auditor.    I want to go back to the simple stripped down scheme. 

[Snookie]

I'm having issues with this right now becuase we use too many color s-   We want to have a color for each allergen, but with 6 of the big 8, that's really eating into choices.  On top of that, a color for non-GMO ingredients, a color for Kosher ingredients, etc.

 

And I'm completely lost as to what color to make something that's non-GMO and has almonds, or something that's Halal and has wheat.  . 

 

Previously, we had a scheme very much like Snookies (white - food contact, blue - walls/non food contact equipment, grey - trash, red allergens), but only having one color for allergens was a problem because the previous allergen might have been different.  We wash allergen tools and equipment between every use, but that wasn't enough for our last auditor.    I want to go back to the simple stripped down scheme. 

 

I agree the colors can get confusing.  I worked in a plant where we had almost every possible allergen, organic, non-organic....well you get it.  Had all of the colors but when you run out of colors, they went to colors with different color stripes......ENOUGH already!!!  Colors can be handy, but K.I.S.S......

[Mr. Incognito]

At the yogurt plant we had 5 of the big 8, though we didn't count milk as an allergen because it was in all of the products, so we just used one color for all of them with the expectation that the operators were supposed to clean the brushes thoroughly between uses to prevent allergen cross contamination.

 

The big 8 for anyone who isn't in the United States are the 8 most reported allergenic foods by percentage of reaction which are:

Milk,

eggs,

fish,

shellfish,

tree nuts,

peanuts,

wheat,

soy

 

and are the only allergens, kinda, we have to label. 

[Food Safe]

Thank you..