Is it acceptable to have drums and barrels on the floor?
We work in a vegetable processing plant that uses wooden pallets. The way our lines are set up, the wooden pallets don't fit under the end of the lines with the fibre drums and barrels we use. All barrels and drums contain food grade bags inside of them which the product is cut into. Is it acceptable to have these drums and barrels sitting on the floor or do they have to be up off the floor? It is my understanding they have to be on the floor but, employees and management are questioning this.
Thank You,
When in doubt, write a formal risk assessment to evaluate the actual risk to product. You can do whatever you want if you can prove that other programs you have in place and the way you handle the barrels won't constitute a risk to product.
The real question is how are the drums handled at your customers. In my previous life we probably used your products....we would man handle the drums and grip them from the bottom at times when pouring/dumping the ingredient into our kettles.
My concern would be listeria. I'm assuming your packaging environment is wet?
Yes our packaging environment is wet and we do environmental swabs for listeria. We have had 3 positive's. I'm not sure how I could even do a risk assessment on drums and barrels on the floor. I have to do most of the work and figuring out by myself since we are a small company and I don't have much help. It would be easiest if we don't have them on the floor but, management is fighting me on it and production. We use re-useable plastic barrels with bag liners which are washed on the floor before use. Under the dicer's there is not enough room to use green grating under the barrels and drums to keep them off the floor. Once the drums are full they are rolled across the floor and placed on wooden pallets. We don't use plastic pallets because management and supervisors say the drums and barrels will slide off because of the wet environment. We do have a pallet sanitation procedure in place because of listeria being on pallets. Pallets are swabbed as part of our pathogen monitoring program.
We also use drums as secondary packaging and we place it on top of plastic pallets. However, in times where pallets are not allowed or does not fit, we still use floor boards for these drums, to ensure that the drums do not lay directly on the floor.
Can the end of the conveyors be raised?
The plastic pallets may be slippery when wet, but if we are talking 400 lb drums? Not likely. I'm assuming those drums get secured somehow as well on the pallet? Additionally, you could put the wood pallet on the plastic pallet, but will be further challenged with the drum height.