Do any food manufacturing facilities do their own laundry?

Do any food manufacturing facilities do their own laundry?? The owner of my company insists that we will be able to (we are building out our new facility right now, just the way we want it!). 

Id like us to clean our own uniforms and towels, but don't know if SQF will allow it. Anyone get through this before???

Also - any recommendations for uniforms? We are thinking long lab coats (We are a candy company) and aprons and pants. Not sure if I need to supply all of it for my staff or if they can wear their own pants....

Anyone use Coveralls before?

For food company, it is better that you have your own laundry area that can provide clean outer layer of clothes/uniform everyday. This is applicable for the production area only but still depends upon on your company if you will provide clean uniform to the maintenance dept etc. Depending on your needs, you are the one that can assess the right uniform but lab coats/gown is appropriate or in some areas you can provide aprons only.

Do any food manufacturing facilities do their own laundry?? The owner of my company insists that we will be able to (we are building out our new facility right now, just the way we want it!). 

Id like us to clean our own uniforms and towels, but don't know if SQF will allow it. Anyone get through this before???

 

Also - any recommendations for uniforms? We are thinking long lab coats (We are a candy company) and aprons and pants. Not sure if I need to supply all of it for my staff or if they can wear their own pants....

 

Anyone use Coveralls before?

Hi Floto,

The majority opinion in earlier threads is to avoid, typically due to difficulties in validation.

Do SQF require validation ?

Hi Floto,

 

The majority opinion in earlier threads is to avoid, typically due to difficulties in validation.

 

Do SQF require validation ?

Depends on the auditor. I've had some that want to see the docs for both in-house and contract service provider validations for kill steps and allergen removal (not strict, but they wanted to see SOMETHING), and others who completely ignore it.

Suggest you check out 7.4.3 of BRC standard 7 as attached.

I have worked at a couple of sites where we had our own laundry (both meat factories)  but you need to be able to demonstrate that the washing & drying is effective.

To do this you need to ensure you wash and/or dry at 75oC or above (calibrated) & validate this monthly with TVC/entero swabs & possibly allergen swabs too if they are handled on site.

Engineers clothing should be washed separately & allergen colour coded clothes also - they would have their washes after standard washes.

Unless you're a high risk site I have never known an auditor to raise an issue as long as you can prove efficacy of the process to remove pathogens/allergens. & have SOPs to support the above.

It is not that SQF prohibits it, you just have to be able to verify and validate.

And follow the requirements of similar commercial laundry operations having to do with temperatures, chemical controls, etc.

While I have not seen that many client companies that have laundries and are SQF certified, I have seen many laundry operations during my auditing days, some bad, some good, others wonderful.

I've experienced both scenarios.  The last facility I worked at was a very large meatpacking facility with deep pocketbooks - dedicated laundry personnel, calibrated washing/drying machines using chemicals that were from a large chemical contractor who would come in and perform the necessary testing and provide validations for the whole laundry process.  The facility I work at currently is MUCH smaller, with contracted laundry service (local).  It's convenient, but the laundry service deals with other types of industries and aren't exclusively a food manufacturing/retail laundry service (they are local, our company is big on trying to use local businesses).  As a result, sometimes their handling practices slip through the cracks (i.e. dropping clean frocks on the floor and hanging them back up during delivery, occasional high APC counts on frocks or towels).  We do periodic checks of their material handling as well as periodic testing of our laundry items to validate. 

Hi Floto,

 

The majority opinion in earlier threads is to avoid, typically due to difficulties in validation.

 

Do SQF require validation ?

Yes, they do. But we can attain that through regular checks on water temperature and visual checks on proper quantities of detergent. I think. Also on regular swab testing for allergens after removing from the wash. I THINK. But it's all a little vague. Thanks for the response!

Yes, they do. But we can attain that through regular checks on water temperature and visual checks on proper quantities of detergent. I think. Also on regular swab testing for allergens after removing from the wash. I THINK. But it's all a little vague. Thanks for the response!

Hi Flotoyo,

JFI here are some of BRC's opinions -

In-house laundering carried out on the company premises must be controlled. This is likely to be via HACCP-style principles, controls and validation data, such as monitoring of the temperature and detergent, specifying items not to be washed together, overseeing drying processes and visual inspection. The laundry will also be included in the programme of internal audits (clause 3.4.1).

Laundries (both in-house and contracted) must ensure that:

•Dirty and clean clothing is adequately segregated to ensure that recently laundered items are not re-contaminated.

•The protective clothing is effectively cleaned – for example, microbiological validation and verification tests have been completed.

•Protective clothing for high-risk and high-care areas is commercially sterile following laundering. ‘Commercially sterile’ means the removal of vegetative forms of micro-organisms associated with food poisoning and/or spoilage (to achieve this, a garment should be processed at a temperature no lower than 65°C for a minimum of 10 minutes, or be processed at a temperature no lower than 71°C for a minimum of 3 minutes or in accordance with local regulatory requirements).

•Cleaned clothes are protected from contamination until delivered to the site (e.g. through the use of covers or bags).

 

A little late but one of the companies I worked at had its own laundry room. I would validate it by preforming titrations on the whole process every 6 months. I would follow the appropriate ppm given by the chemical company. You can also ask them to do it, I had them do it a couple of times. I would also atp swab the towels when the process was done. You do however need to add the machines on a PM schedule. 

Do any food manufacturing facilities do their own laundry?? The owner of my company insists that we will be able to (we are building out our new facility right now, just the way we want it!). 

Id like us to clean our own uniforms and towels, but don't know if SQF will allow it. Anyone get through this before???

 

Also - any recommendations for uniforms? We are thinking long lab coats (We are a candy company) and aprons and pants. Not sure if I need to supply all of it for my staff or if they can wear their own pants....

 

Anyone use Coveralls before?

There is nothing in SQF that says you can't have your own laundry. You'll need safeguards of course and validation, etc.  Many of our SQF clients have their own laundry facilities and most have workers in non-button lab coats.

Hi Guys, 

I am wondering how I can check/do calibration of the washing machine and dryer. Any ideas?

As well , Are you using any specific laundry detergent?

At my last job, we laundered our smocks and aprons.  We had separate laundry rooms for crab gear and fish gear.
Smocks were snaps, no buttons. Difference colors for production, QC and Maintenance. Different color aprons for crab and fish as well.
They are SQF certified. Logs were kept on days items were washed (some days only crab ran, some days only fish ran, some days both ran)

There were validations on it as well.

Hi Guys, 

 

I am wondering how I can check/do calibration of the washing machine and dryer. Any ideas?

...

What are your critical parameters? 

Temperature, you can toss a probe in a batch to do a verification.  The water temperature is likely controlled externally and can be turned up on the thermostat for the water heater.  Drying temperature is going to be more tricky, while it is physically possible to increase the BTUs or kJ delivered, most drying equipment uses very crude controls (HI/LOW) -- so if this fails you're going to be tinkering with the electronics or buying a new machine.

Hi Guys, 

Does anyone know what kind of Laundry Detergent should be used if your plant is washing their own uniforms? Of course, antibacterial laundry detergent but is there a COA or something needed ?