When should a hair net and beard net be worn?

I am rewriting a lot of our policies at my facility and making them a little less vague in certain areas and I came across the hair control portion where we require our employees to where hair/beard nets.  I was wondering what everyone else does as far as handling when a beard considered long enough to warrant wearing a beard net.  We have typically stuck with, if you can firmly grab it with your fingers, you need to have a beard net on.  We also have plenty of employees with shaved heads, which the whole point of the hair net is to keep hair from falling into product so if there isn't any, I would imagine there isn't a problem.  But just wondered what are some rules/regulations other Practitioners use in their facility.

 

We are a dog food packaging facility, but don't actually fill any of the bags with product at our facility, in case that helps.

 

Thank you

we used to say that you were allowed 2 days of growth before you need a beard net, but that's subjective, some peoples beards grow faster than others so now we saw if you have any visible growth you need to wear one, takes the guess work out.

 

We have a customer that has requested that we wear hairnets/Beard-nets so we wear them all the time, 

 

packaging is low risk so if you do a risk assessment you may find that you don't need to wear them at all.

Hair/beard nets are an all or nothing proposition. You cannot use subjective terms (even for the bald people)

 

Don't pet food companies have to follow very similar GMPs to human food? Correct me if i'm wrong here.

 

The science behind hairnets isn't just about the physical hair itself (which is gross, no one wants that) but hair is a really good carrier of Staphylococcus aureus which can make pets sick too

We used to have 1/4" tolerance for beard hair, but we found it kind of subjective to enforce (because no one wants to go around with a ruler and physically measure the length of people's beards). So now we have a clean-shaven policy.

 

We allow moustaches and they don't have to be covered with a beard net unless otherwise requested by the customer. Why this is acceptable I have no idea as it's the same as beard hair, but auditors are okay with it so for now I'm not pushing back on it.

 

Hair nets are required for everyone who goes out on the production floor, whether they have hair or not. Also if you introduce mandatory hair nets, note that they must effectively cover the hair. We had some ladies on the floor that would style their bangs and leave them outside of the front of the hairnet to look nice. They weren't very happy when I told them they can't do that anymore.

 

For reference we are a paper-based food packaging manufacturer.

We produce Pet Treats and we follow FSEP and SQF requirements. LIke Scampi said the GMP's are the same as human food. We have an across the board policy that states even if the employee is bald the hairnet is required. The scalp produces a lot of oil and can harbour a lot of microbes even when clean, there are studies out there that state this. The skin on the scalp can flake as well. With the beard net we use the 1/4" guideline, I don't measure but if I can notice it growing from a few feet away I let them know it is required. Usually, the guys I work with are good at just wearing it even if they have shaved, its a routine now.

I have usually used the 2-3 days’ growth rule on beard nets but it really is easier to just make anybody with growth wear a beard net. Regarding hair nets, again it is easier for one rule across the board. I won’t raked in one plant with a lot of Muslim women who wore head scarves that exposed only their faces, but we asked them to wear hair nets on top of the scarves. They thought it rather funny since their hair was already better covered than the rest of us, but it made everything uniform.

On the assumption your company is working to a food safety standard it'll probably be outlined in it somewhere either (1) the exact extent to which hair needs to be covered or, (2) as is often the case, state that hair should be 'suitably contained' or words to that effect. In the second scenario it's down to you to not only make the decision on what constitutes 'suitable containment' but implement it and actually justify to an auditor why the level of containment you've decided on is enough. If you're confident you can do that, you're on the right lines. Ultimately, hair nets for everyone and beard nets for anyone who isn't fully clean shaven removes the ambiguity and is a fool-proof policy.

 

Good luck

 

Andy

Thanks for all the insightful responses.  I think we will try to go with if the hair is 1/8" or longer we will require them to wear hairnets/beard nets.  The 2 to 3 days growth thing just gets a little hard to gauge as everyone's hair grows differently.  We will stick with this, at least we have a set measurement and go from there.  Thanks again everyone, very helpful.

Clean shaven or you wear beard snood. Its clear to all whether you had a shave before starting work.

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We always follow, if you can grab the stubble between your thumb and forefinger, you must wear a beard cover.  As mentioned, people have different rates of growth.   You must cover your FULL beard and and sideburns.  It is ridiculous when you have individuals on a production floor with extremely large, full beard spilling out from a beard cover...

I think the stubble-between-thumb-and-forefinger rule is commonplace, at least IME.  Plus hair nets are required of ALL - bald or not.

 

Sometimes just having a consistent rule takes the guesswork out and makes your policy less subjective so that energy can be focused on more important things than worrying about whether or not someone's hair is long enough to require a net.

Everyone wears hair nets, bald, shaved or otherwise period. Able to pull beard hair or intentional beard / burns requires beard nets.

I think its important to keep it as simple as possible.  We always said "EVERYONE" wore a hair net no matter if they had hair or not and beard nets were required for 48 hours of growth. (So any noticeable amount of hair).  This kept it pretty standard and we would be minimal push back.

 Regarding beard nets. This is the second time now I've heard that you can have a mustache and not have to wear a beard net. I'd like to ask for more opinions on this.

 We make food packages here. We handle no food.

 Regarding beard nets. This is the second time now I've heard that you can have a mustache and not have to wear a beard net. I'd like to ask for more opinions on this.

 We make food packages here. We handle no food.

 

It may depend on the standard someone is following. I.e BRC specifically mentions "snoods for beards and moustaches" (for 'Food Safety' at least, I'm not familiar with their 'Packaging' standard.) though other schemes may not mention the moustache.

 

The below thread could be on interest to you regarding snoods and beard length:

 

https://www.ifsqn.co...ood#entry144667

Im really surprised by the amount of people responding with various "lengths" of beards for netting. I dont have time to be measuring beards or guessing how many days growth they have. Everyone wears beard nets and hair nets, period. It makes my walk-thrus a breeze. The last thing i want to do is argue with someone how long their beard is or how many days its been since they shaved.

 

I like consistency in programs and policies, so everyone wears one. If I find myself having to make exceptions for one person, I realize I might find myself with a NC in a future audit.

 

If an auditor asks your justification for the 1/4" or 1/8" rule, what will be your response? Is there a study to show 1/2" hair is more disgusting and unsafe than 1/4"? Thats a slippery slope I dont have time for.