Considerations to ensure product safety during construction works

Hi team,

We are having construction works at my place of work.

Please advise or share  a form or questionnaire on factors to consider for assurance of product safety.

A procedure would also be much appreciated.

Thank you.

Dear SA WA,

You need to be sure, that there is no risk of product contamination (by falling or flying objects, smoke or by chemical contaminants). Otherwise you can't produce on the concerned lines.

Furthermore you need to protect the site from entrance of pests.

The people who are doing the construction work need to know and to respect the hygiene and food safety rules. The chapter Food Defense is also to be taken seriously, during the work.

Once the work is finished, everything needs to be cleaned, before starting the new production. Verify that there are no loose parts left around the construction zone and in the production are, such as screws, tools and debris.  

Kind regards,

Gerard Heerkens

Hi SA WA

We have a general checklist that we follow. Depending on the type of products you are making will determine the amount of environmental swabs you take (i.e. if you are a raw facility you might not take any environmental swabs; if you are ready to eat you would be taking more). Hope this helps!

• Flow of construction workers – entrance and exit points
• GMP’s for construction workers – who’s training them and enforcing (no eating, smoking, drinking, hairnets if they are walking through production areas)
• Garbage route – how will their garbage be collected and get out of the building and when
• How is the larger machinery or pieces of equipment getting into and out of the building (prevent opening doors to the outside during production times). 
• Environmental swabs in high traffic areas that cross over to food zones
• Protect food zones with temporary walls that are dust/vapor proof plastic barriers
• Include the temporary walls as part of inspections (pre-operational inspections/internal inspections)
• If plans change and need access to outside or other areas, need to have a conference before opening doors or bringing in new equipment
• Type of equipment being used and when (i.e. drills, gas powered equipment)
• Type of chemicals or paint that will be used and when
• When will construction be complete
• When will the temporary fixtures be taken down (not during production times) and need time to clean and sanitize all food contact areas after everything is taken down. 
• Swabs of food contact and environmental (dependent on type of product produced and area of construction)

Peaches list is very comprehensive and more or less what I have used in the plant

The biggest issue I had was getting the construction crews to follow the GMP's..............be prepared to be hands on when the construction begins..................MAKE SURE YOU ARE INVOLVED IN MATERIAL SELECTION before purchases are made

Example.......brand new trim lines installed.......started finding material sporadically in the meat.....repeated HOLDS (very expensive) I insisted it was from the knives on the belting material..............was repeatedly told no that can't be; project manager kept loooking and shrugging shoulders (looking for anything EXCEPT my suggestion) 

Finally combos started getting rejected by our sister plant...................I said Is the belting material cut resistant?  The reponse?????? Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm I'm not sure.........I said well come watch me with a knife.....scrape scrape voila material on my knife

So use the above story as a caution.............not only is the construction a big deal to mange day to day, but there may be costly errors made that could be avoided is QA were involved at the beginning

Hi, Sa Wa.

On top of what is provided by Peachy which is an extensive list, you may also want to consider the following:

Btw, for the construction you mention, is it will some lines running or the plant is totally in shutdown?

-The pest control layout. If some traps will be affected during construction. If no current devices will be affected and there will be civil work on building perimeter, may need to add rodent devices just to be sure that they will not be "spreading" everywhere in the facility.

-Check also if they will affect the flow of your materials.

-Take swabs of equipment that will be brought inside rooms with higher or stricter hygiene zones. Ensure that tools brought inside are also hygienic.

-Check if there will be some utilities that need to be turned off during the construction that it may affect your normal GMP (e.g. no water, electricity, etc...)

-Who will be the "team to release" the line.

-Depending on your product, you may need to take air samples.

-If you have large overseas equipment crates, may need to check for pest before uncrating.

-After installation, check for hygienic design and presence of hollow bodies :)