Safety Hazard of Lab Coats

Good afternoon.  We are updating our dress code policy and are having a bit of a debate in regards to food safety vs. personnel safety. 

We package dry, Non-RTE grains.  

Our facility gets to around 55 degrees F in the winter time, so it's too cold to leave our employees with minimal clothing.  We have discussed the idea of wearing lab coats over warmer clothes, however, we have a concern of the coats getting caught in some of the conveyors.  We have operators that move around within the production area and it seems like a safety hazard with the possibility of a longer lab coat getting hooked on something or caught in a conveyor.

Has anyone else addressed the potential hazard of this occurrence?  It seems like the typical food processing facility uses these lab coats as standard dress code, however, I am curious to know of anyone's experience or analysis of the safety hazard that this may bring to employees working around conveyors.

Thanks

^{Why not try coveralls?  We have both in our plant and depending on job assignments the operators can wear either smock or coveralls.}

We had a similar issue here. We decided to have Black quilted winter lab coat style jacket as an alternate option of the normal lab coat. They look a lot like the lab coats just a different color and thicker but not as long. We treat these warmer jackets the same as we do lab coats, with the same rules on where they are to be stored, laundered and where they can be worn.

The one safety aspect we were concerned about was the sleeves catching on equipment or objects. So we had the sleeves adjusted to be a little tighter and added an elastic to the arm to keep it from being too loose and free to catch on objects. Both items are not to be worn together, as it adds to much bulk to the employee's body. 

If you have a laundry/uniform company check with them, they will likely have something you could use. Our laundry provider was a great help on this issue. They sourced the coats for us as well as suggested most of the altercations. 

Very interesting, thank you for the responses.  Do you recall the brand or manufacturer of the black jacket?

There is no brand name on the coats, I will check with our laundry supplier and let you know when I get an answer.