You just got hired as QA at a new small company , what's $500
I had an idea for an article and was hoping the IFSQN community would share some ideas with me! The thought is that when being brought on-board to a small company (like <20 employees) with an immature food safety program, in the first week you could make purchases totaling less than $500 that would make a large impact on food safety equipment or culture.
Some of my ideas from experience and FDA past warnings:
ILT's for small buildings without robust pest control:
You can immediately show plant staff how many you caught each week by installing an ILT near your front or back entrance for less than $200, and change the mindset that the plant just has flies like a house in summer.
A bottle of glo-germ:
Nothing changes midset of sanitation and handwashing like seeing your hands glow after catching the tennis ball. <$50
New sanitation equipment:
Replace those ratty brooms, mops, and brushes with fresh high quality ones to make sanitation easier, since you'll likely be asking for more of it. $100-$200
New product handling equipment:
Not only are those casters on old carts filty, they don't roll well and the cart is too large/too small! How frustrating for everyone. And what about those ingredient buckets? Could we get some with handles and new lids with smooth cleanable surfaces? $200-300
Calibrated thermometers:
Those old dial ones have been here forever. Sure they might be dunkable in boiling water, but you're a professional food company! Hardy, calibrated, digital thermocouple thermometers are about $60, get a bunch!
Concrete sealant:
Go to home depot, pick up a can, and spend a weekend filling in those bigger cracks in the floor. You may not be able to repair the pitting, but this small step will show the production employees and FDA that you care about the condition of the floor, and set your company up to invest in it further in the future! $80
Those things that are broken:
Garbage cans, handles, cupboard doors, bad casters, stepladders, equipment in use wears out, and we often just deal with it. Show your employees you care about what they use (and eliminate foreign material and harbor age zones) by picking up new versions of these items that are relatively cheap, and create a replacement plan over the year to get to them all.
What ideas do you have or what was a surprisingly simple purchase that made a difference in your plant?
I think this is a good idea for an article. I have been hired as a consultant by a company about the size you reference. Unfortunately my fees are eating up the $500 and then some, but a lot of the items that you mentioned are things that I'm suggesting to them. This is of course in addition to the creation and formalization of cGMPs, food safety plans, etc. I think you could probably make a pretty good impact with less than $500 just by pointing out things that they have overlooked for months or years.
I think this is a good idea for an article. I have been hired as a consultant by a company about the size you reference. Unfortunately my fees are eating up the $500 and then some, but a lot of the items that you mentioned are things that I'm suggesting to them. This is of course in addition to the creation and formalization of cGMPs, food safety plans, etc. I think you could probably make a pretty good impact with less than $500 just by pointing out things that they have overlooked for months or years.
May I introduce myself through email. We are currently looking for candidates to do the same for our new plant we are building.
staff uniforms to make them look and feel professional and get that 'work' brain switched on