Hair found in product

Hi all, 

Lately, i have received a complaint from customer found a thread of hair in product. I would be grateful if anyone wiling to share the way to reply to customer and what are the corrective action will be. 

What kind of product, have you done your own root cause analysis of how the hair could have gotten in there?

FDA considers rodent hair to be an "aesthetic" issue, but there is some data correlating hair with pathogen contamination.

Offer replacement product to the customer and let them know that should they have any medical questions about the safety of the food they should ask their doctor. (doctors are always your friend for scared consumers, they help them chill out). Corrective action depends on your process and where the hair was most likely to have gotten in there.

Hi Carine,

1. Ask for a photo and product code/details.

2. Conduct investigation and root cause analysis: traceability, review of process, GMP/hygiene practices and laboratory checks.

3. Prepare a letter and present your investigation details and corrective/preventive actions to the customer. 

4. Offer product replacement usually a gift pack.  

Regards.

Mandark

Can i say the root cause of incident is worker lack of personal hygiene awareness by not wearing hair net. ? 

Corrective action is give the workers refresher training to ensure  proper attire  have been followed during working.? 

Can i say the root cause of incident is worker lack of personal hygiene awareness by not wearing hair net. ? 

Corrective action is give the workers refresher training to ensure  proper attire  have been followed during working.? 

Have you determined that is the actual root cause? Was it lack of hair net, or possibly improper positioning/wearing of hair net? Did the employee put on a smock or other protective coat before donning hair net, causing hair to fall onto their protective clothing?  Regardless, some kind of training should probably be a part of your corrective action, depending on your exact root cause. 

Hi MsMars, improper wearing hair net is a root cause of the hair fall into product following a serial investigation had been launch. 

What kind of product, have you done your own root cause analysis of how the hair could have gotten in there?

 

FDA considers rodent hair to be an "aesthetic" issue, but there is some data correlating hair with pathogen contamination.

 

Offer replacement product to the customer and let them know that should they have any medical questions about the safety of the food they should ask their doctor. (doctors are always your friend for scared consumers, they help them chill out). Corrective action depends on your process and where the hair was most likely to have gotten in there.

Hi 3F,

Interesting.

Aesthetic or not, it can still lead to rejection although IMO some of the FDA action levels are actually pretty generous. Would you be happy if yr 100g of chocoate contained 2 rat hairs ?. It's apparently legally acceptable.

https://www.fda.gov/...n/ucm056174.htm

PS - another unaestheticism -

https://www.cbsnews....in-your-food/4/

Hi Carine,

Can i say the root cause of incident is worker lack of personal hygiene awareness by not wearing hair net. ? Do you mean your not wearing hairnet? You could rephrase your statement to "improper wearing of hair net". We do experience this kind of complaint, we show photos of proper wearing of hairnet before (unfixed) and after (fixed) in the letter including the next statement.

Corrective action is give the workers refresher training to ensure  proper attire  have been followed during working.? In your SSOP or GMP program, proper wearing of working attire/PPE is included during the induction and refresher training at least once a year.

Regards,

Mandark

Hello,

In addition to that "proper wearing of hairnets", is there assigned personnel to check their attire before they go to the production area? In our company, we are checking the personnel on their PPE, hairfall, long nails, ear arings, loose items including mobile phone before the can commence working,

regards,

redfox

Hi Carine,

Have you already determined the type of hair ? If so, how ? Visual ?

What was the Product and discovery location ? Restaurant ?

IMEX the first requirement is to "verify". Offer profuse apologies / collect event data / request the return of the offensive item.

Human/rodent are distinguishable by lab. specialists if not self-evident.

The root cause and corrective action will obviously be somewhat different. And possibly the complainant's viewpoint also ?

Some standard customer "reaction" templates for such incidents have been previously posted here.

Believe it or not there are 33 pages of threads here discussing "hair". Including one on chest hair !

Just as example -

http://www.ifsqn.com...ottles-of-mayo/

I would add a daily GMP record if you haven't already implemented one as part of the corrective actions.

Hi 3F,

 

Interesting.

 

Aesthetic or not, it can still lead to rejection although IMO some of the FDA action levels are actually pretty generous. Would you be happy if yr 100g of chocoate contained 2 rat hairs ?. It's apparently legally acceptable.

https://www.fda.gov/...n/ucm056174.htm

 

PS - another unaestheticism -

 

https://www.cbsnews....in-your-food/4/

Oh absolutely. And hard to say "legal", after all, it's only a guidance document. It confers no actual protections.

not the only country LOL

Canada' Federal Poultry Reinspection has an allowance as well