Is drinking in warehouse allowed if drinks are in a sealed container?
Hi
We are currently a BRC standard warehouse and i banned all food and drinking from the warehouse full stop.
a bit about us
we are a 3PL compnay and all our products we store are sealed in a box with in a box or packaging.
we never open products in the warehouse to split down. The only place where we split products down is if any rework is needed
Health & Safety team have requested are we allowed to have drinks in the warehouse if they are in a sealed container if it is monitored and controlled
my first reply was a straight no as it will be abused ETC
what are peoples thoughts i am happy to allow this if correctly monitored but i have worries incase of an audit i will get a non conformance
i can add to HACCP do policy if needed
thoughts please
Darren
Hi Daren,
This situation is really comlicated.
My opinion as an auditor is that you have rights to give official permition for drinking. You say that you will control but the main question is "how".
You should be sure that you can show the auditor that you really manage and control this. You should include this hazard in your HACCP of course. But other problem is that this is in connection and with food defence. You can think and to take bottles for water of the employees which are different from the this that you store and to identified them foe each emploee.
But again you can have problems during the audit. Any auditor have some point of view and understanding and is possible to dont accept it.
But whatever you choose to do should be detailed justified.
Good luck.
Best regards,
Ivan
IMHO limit this to plain water is clear containers. Allowing anything else becomes a very slippery slope very quickly.
Alternativly, you could have a water fountain installed. It would just need included in the sanitation program to make sure it didn't become a source of contamination.
Our clients in the same industry were advised to use company issued water bottles with sippy tops or water coolers with disposal cone shaped cups.
The best solution was the water coolers but only with CONE shaped cups. -- has never triggered an issue on an audit.
Buy the way - what is meant by "rework" in your facility?
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Our clients in the same industry were advised to use company issued water bottles with sippy tops or water coolers with disposal cone shaped cups.
The best solution was the water coolers but only with CONE shaped cups. -- has never triggered an issue on an audit.
Buy the way - what is meant by "rework" in your facility?
Water coolers are your best bet but make sure they are on your sanitation list - they DO collect mold unfortunately!
As a packaging manufacturer, we allow only water in clear (no labels) soft plastic bottles which must have a screw on lid that seals and will not leak or spill when laid on their side or inverted. They must only be placed on tables at work stations, never on machines or product. This allows employees to use bottled water from the grocery store or vending machine. it also leaves little room for interpretation. Never been questioned on it past "what is your water bottle policy". All additives for water that I know of have food products in them (Flavors, colors, sweeteners etc.) so cannot be allowed in production areas as a matter of GMP.
Our evaluation and risk assessment shows the likelihood to be minimal to non-existent. That and the fact that screw on caps are likely the most widely accepted type of container allowed in production areas. I have seen many of the sippy type containers leak after only a few uses which creates multiple hazards. Also understand that we a low risk, packaging manufacturer.
We were required to have a designated drink station at our facility during our BRC audit.