Forklift Cleaning and Sanitation

We have forklifts and other specialized lifts that need to be used outside occasionally.  Our practice has been to clean and sanitize any forklift outside before it is brought back into the plant.  Our engineering group just came to Sanitation and Quality to advise that this practices is no longer allowed. Essentially, we cannot clean anything outside because it is violation of the Clean Water Act.  

Our concern is that we do not want to wash "dirty" equipment like forklifts in our current wash area since that is where we clean and sanitize food processing equipment since that presents a cross-contamination issue. 

Curious how others handle sanitation for forklifts, etc.  Do you have a dedicated wash area for only forklifts and other misc equipment (not food equipment)?

Yes, dedicated wash down area for any equipment coming into plant - Like a pre-stage area.

We bought a fork lift that is only used outside.  It is never brought into the production building.  It is kept in a garage.  

We bought a fork lift that is only used outside.  It is never brought into the production building.  It is kept in a garage.  

Is it painted a different color?

How can you adequately clean and sanitize a forklift before you allow it back into the building?
I'd love to see that SSOP.

Marshall

Dear Mrs Jenky

I think you must only used individually forklifts in the area and the outside .

Thanks

Invest in a water treatment unit.

Can you give me an example of water treatment unit? We were considering TRAXX that have sanitizer in them so the fork lift can go drive over?

Ideally, you have a separate forklift for the outdoors.

The main concern with an outside forklift going indoors is bringing in bacteria / pathogens.  The way this is done is through the wheels / tires.  So if you have some type of way to clean and sanitize the wheels / tires upon entry then that is adequate.

In my previous facility we had doorway foamer units with quat that would blanket the floor a good 5 foot long across the entire doorway and the forklifts would roll through these upon entry into the facility.  We regularly monitored the forklift wheels / tires with environmental swabs and never had a positive.  We would see some environmental positive hits around our trash compactor where the forklift sometimes would go to take out debris on the weekends, but even then no environmental positive on the wheel / tires.

You could develop a clean / sanitize procedure for the wheels / tires and verify it through swabbing.

This came up for us in a recent audit for us. 

We have a forklift truck that isn't supposed to be used outside however it is, and we have chicken sheds literally about 5 meters away.The forklift rarely goes into the production room, mainly just the packaging store warehouse, we were advised to get a mat that covers the entrance floor and this is to be filled up with a disinfectant, so when the forklift truck goes in and out, the wheels are being disinfected. I'm sure an auditor could still find some loop holes in this, as we don't have an additional cleaning procedure for the forklift truck itself (the rest of it not just the wheels), however this is what was recommended and so we implemented it. This also applied to walking pallet trucks which go outside to collect pallets to take into the production room - although a walking pallet truck definitely won't go over a mat like this filled with liquid. 

I think i will now look into creating a cleaning schedule for the forklift truck - so thanks for this topic!

This came up for us in a recent audit for us. 

 

We have a forklift truck that isn't supposed to be used outside however it is, and we have chicken sheds literally about 5 meters away.The forklift rarely goes into the production room, mainly just the packaging store warehouse, we were advised to get a mat that covers the entrance floor and this is to be filled up with a disinfectant, so when the forklift truck goes in and out, the wheels are being disinfected. I'm sure an auditor could still find some loop holes in this, as we don't have an additional cleaning procedure for the forklift truck itself (the rest of it not just the wheels), however this is what was recommended and so we implemented it. This also applied to walking pallet trucks which go outside to collect pallets to take into the production room - although a walking pallet truck definitely won't go over a mat like this filled with liquid. 

 

I think i will now look into creating a cleaning schedule for the forklift truck - so thanks for this topic!

What type of mat did you get? From where?

Thanks!

@Tavish101

I just got it from a local engineering place that sells all sorts. 

but you can get them from eBay

https://www.ebay.co....foAAOSwhWteeiDQ

OR i'm sure if you have local farm / poultry places they will have them as they are necessary for bio-security when it comes to poultry etc. 

Literally just search 'disinfectant mats' and make sure it's large enough to take the full wheel.