Arm hair covers

Hi there ~

How often are all of you seeing forearm covers to prevent arm hair contamination of product?  I think this is going a bit too far, but if I'm outnumbered on this I will concede.

Thank you,

Matthew

Never. And if it's being considered, it's going WAY too far, IMO.

Marshall

I have never heard of this being a requirement, other than in a high risk biolab cleanroom!

Has anyone done a risk assessment on this that they would care to share?

I would argee, I have only had 1 place use them (a meat processing plant) and there it was more to keep the loose sleeve in check plus keep you a bit dryer.  Let us not talk too loud before it someone comes up with the hair-brained idea (pun intended)

G

I've seen them used in a bakery environment where employees were handling dough that would stick to their arms when they manually moved the dough.  I considered the arms a food contact surface at that point.  If the product is going to stick and pull the hair out of the arms, then no, it is not overkill.  A risk assessment was done in this situation and only those with dough sticking to their arms were required to wear arm sleeves. 

I've seen them used in a bakery environment where employees were handling dough that would stick to their arms when they manually moved the dough.  I considered the arms a food contact surface at that point.  If the product is going to stick and pull the hair out of the arms, then no, it is not overkill.  A risk assessment was done in this situation and only those with dough sticking to their arms were required to wear arm sleeves. 

We process RTE snack foods that are kind of sticky and require anyone entering the production floor to wear long-sleeved lab coats to prevent just this situation. The odds of contact with the forearms is slim to none but it was decided it was worth it to cover the arms.

I agree about doing a risk analysis to determine if arm hairs need to be considered as a controlled risk.  I work for a company that makes packaging for food products.  Many of our customers require that their employees cover their arms and get upset that we allow our employees to wear short sleeve shirts.  Their risk is a lot greater than our risk.

We actually require personnel's arms to be double covered,  We require a company supplied smock (lab coat) to be worn with plastic arm sleeve covers and gloves on top of that.  Although, it really does come down to your process and the risks so a risk assessment is the way to go along with a review of customer complaints and defects in house to support that; whether for or against wearing them.

We require a company supplied smock (lab coat) to be worn with plastic arm sleeve covers only in positions where the smock or arm can potentially touch the product. If your arm or sleeve  is touching RTE products is just like touching the product with bare hands.