High Care Area For fresh produce

Hi all,

a design/construction and procedural question for the gurus out there please. A quick recap on what we do : supply and distribution to retail & wholesale establishments of fresh whole produce (in Zambia) . We haven't been involved in the Food safety aspect for long - 2 years really, and are learning everything from scratch.

We have built a brand new packshed from scratch (ouch!) and so far so good. I want to start a high care section for cut/RTE foods, but given the cost of building etc I really need to get it right on the first go.  We already have an existing room that isn't being used so I'm incorporating that, extending it out of the general facility.

I haven't been able to find enough detailed/satisfactory information for all my questions, but I will summarize my plans at the moment, grateful if anyone could suggest something I might be overlooking (we are going to attempt FSSC 22000 next year )

1.  Complete segregation (physical & colour code etc) of all equipment, utensils etc

2. Separate outer garment change room/hand sanitation on entry to High care (this will be separated from the H.C working area by strip curtaining)

3. Produce wash/sanitise basins (in addition to the post harvest wash on arrival)

4. Sloped flooring and drainage  (is there any requirement for tiled floors? seems like more of a hazard to me)

5. Cooling units that can (should be able to) reach 5 degrees Celcius - also I'm not really sure what the temp should be considering staff will be in there for relatively extended periods???

6. High care storage (post packaging) - this will be another section of the same room, also separated from general work area by strip curtaining, also with its own cooling unit

7. The flow would basically be : 

-staff enter and exit by one door, having to change protective clothing in that area. This door leads out into our general facility .

- produce enters through same staff entrance, gets processed, goes into storage area. The storage area is then accessible from a second door which leads into the cool dock/ dispatch bay .

I'm not sure I have my produce exit point quite right, as in theory it will be accessed by personnel who have not gone through the "high care change over" , but it will be packaged and sealed at that point, so ...... ? 

Grateful for any additions to this, and may the Food Safety Fairy be with you always! :)

8.0 A container with disinfectant to soak unused, cleaned utensils,

9.0 Insectrocutors (electrical insect killers) at entrance and exit of the area

10.0 a little sump in the floor to soak shoes prior to access the cutting area,

Dear Tan,

I'm sure you have specified this before but "fresh whole produce" = ?  type of fruit / veg = ?

As I'm sure you know some cut/RTE products have a "history" but the hi-tech processes by which some people attempt to solve some of the histories are maybe outside yr intended production scope, eg sanitizers.

The possibilities may well (as usual) depend on product / process / yr customer requirements/specs (if any ?) .

Rgds / Charles.C

Thanks Michael, forgot to include those :)

Thanks Charles,  we do a very wide range of both fruit & veg - all of which are washed in a strong chlorine based sanitiser solution (whole). The aim is to now start chopping things to make our own lines (i.e - salad bags, a roasting veg mix, fruit salad) that type of thing.  I also have KFC and Pizza Hut coming on board who require us to do their slicing/chopping of single items (i.e sliced tomato , shredded lettuce etc). They have their own standards and micro requirements, but as luck would have it, an auditor would probably find fault in my process somewhere.  I hope this helps clarify?

Hi!

How exciting!  You for sure have to make sure everything is good to go - you'll probably be living with the room you built for a long time. 

Your plan sounds good as far as I can see - post packaging is less critical than pre packaging. 

Sloped floor is a must, and you'l wnat to make sure your walls are cleanable.  If you get $ to redo the floors, you might want colored concrete or non-slip floors (I think they add sand or something to it, it's kind of bumpy but easy to clean). 

Also really nice when they redo the floor is to have the concrete come up along the wall so that you don't need base boards.  It really helps with pest control /gaps in the wall.

A handwashing sink in the area, sounds like you already planned for it but drains are $

I'm jealous  - I would *looove* $ and time to upgrade our facilities - the Food Safety fairy has blessed you.

Hi Magenta!  Thanks for the excitement, thought I was losing it, I'm like a little girl in a playground of her own!haha Thanks for the flooring suggestion, never even crossed my mind, that's why this network is the best thing since sliced cheese!  I'm hoping a few more people will add pearls of wisdom, quite a daunting task and with such little experience I'm probably full of silly questions.  Thanks! :)

KFC and Pizza Hut are YUM brands and their audits are rather renowned for their difficulty.  With YUM you will want to overthink it. 

KFC and Pizza Hut are YUM brands and their audits are rather renowned for their difficulty.  With YUM you will want to overthink it. 

 Hi Snookie, precisely! We currently have among of the highest audit scores for KFC in the western Africa group (can you tell I am SO proud of this?? :)    )   but we are taking it to the next level so if anyone has any experience I would reaaaally appreciate any input

Hi Tan!

Our floor is epoxy coated. Even the McDo guys love it.

If you can possibly separate the staff access door from the materials access, better. If not, you need to paint a floor layout just to identify the staff flow from the materials.

Good luck on your new plant.

Dear Tan,

I hope you’re not playing with bean sprouts, melon, or chia seeds, to name but a few.

Yr illustrious customers will probably start suggesting products like in this attachment –

http://www.ifsqn.com...5643#entry75643

This thread also has some thoughts in it also –

http://www.ifsqn.com...g-sanitisation/

Regarding reduced temperatures et al  -

http://www.fda.gov/f...s/ucm064574.htm

Rgds / Charles.C

Dear Tan,

It is possible yr new enterprise may be on a higher level than many of the probably basic resources below but i thought some other growers here might be interested. The following threads / attachments are primarily, AFAIK, related to Packinghouse Activities. Some of the (selected) attachments may have already been posted by other people.

http://www.ifsqn.com...ect-vegetables/

(2006)

http://www.ifsqn.com...indpost&p=15193

(2007)

http://www.ifsqn.com...liflower-haccp/

(2013)

http://www.ifsqn.com...nitizing-tools/

(2013)

http://www.ifsqn.com...cking-facility/

(2013)

http://www.ifsqn.com...h-station-sink/

(2013)

http://onfarmfoodsafety.org/

(no direct experience but looked a potentially interesting resource, maybe not free)

agr1 - Primus packinghouse standard,2011.pdf   629.03KB   81 downloads

agr2 - food_quality_issues-understanding_haccp_and_other_quality_management_techniques.pdf   318.86KB   81 downloads

agr3 - the On-farm FS Project.pdf   2.13MB   58 downloads

agr4 - costco_produce_food_safety_audit_expectations,2013.pdf   102.35KB   58 downloads

agr5 - On-Farm-Food-Safety-Plan-SAMPLE.pdf   347.87KB   58 downloads

agr6 - AIB, Fresh Produce and Fruit Packinghouses.pdf   484.01KB   81 downloads

agr7 - CanadaGap FS Greenhouse Manual,2013.pdf   2.01MB   60 downloads

Rgds / Charles.C

Hi Charles, thank you so incredibly much for this. Your ever-flowing knowledge is a dream come true for the newbies. This will definitely make some good bed time reading!

Dear Tan,

You're very welcome.

I have never worked within your commodity type but it seems a very tricky area to me due to the perpetual lack of a "killing' step in the process. This also tends to create some awkwardnesses with respect to haccp in iso22000. Good luck.

Rgds / Charles.C

This is why Charles got the very first mug.  Well earned.  :thumbup: