Is it ok to have fans in the production area?
hello,
The temperature in my facility can sometimes get pretty high. we are not allowing employees to wear shorts under their smocks so the question of having fans for the employees came up. Will this be an issue during an SQF audit? will maintenance on our fans weekly and air sampling be enough to support having fans in the production floor?
Will the fans be near open product or only in closed product areas? We had fans but only in areas where product wasn't exposed. And we bought big filters to put over top of them. We also only allowed them during summer when a certain temperature was reached so depending on when your audit is then it may not be an issue for you.
As a former SQF Auditor the first item that may come up will be - why is the ventilation system inadequate, have you done a documented risk analysis for using the fans, are the fans made of appropiate materials, the position of them blowing, are they only blowing air and not particles, etc - are they are on the sanitation list, etc.
What are your products?
We have a bakery area and during summer time, temperature in the area gets too hot, we have big industrial stand up fans that the employee can turn on during those days. There is SSOP for the fans, inspection during pre-op etc.
Will the fans be near open product or only in closed product areas? We had fans but only in areas where product wasn't exposed. And we bought big filters to put over top of them. We also only allowed them during summer when a certain temperature was reached so depending on when your audit is then it may not be an issue for you.
what kind of filters?
As a former SQF Auditor the first item that may come up will be - why is the ventilation system inadequate, have you done a documented risk analysis for using the fans, are the fans made of appropiate materials, the position of them blowing, are they only blowing air and not particles, etc - are they are on the sanitation list, etc.
we have not set up the fans yet. If we end up doing them and keep them away from blowing towards the product as well as have a documented risk assesment with regular cleaning and air sampling would you have accepted them?
What are your products?
We have a bakery area and during summer time, temperature in the area gets too hot, we have big industrial stand up fans that the employee can turn on during those days. There is SSOP for the fans, inspection during pre-op etc.
same as yours, It's a bakery for bread. are they cleaned daily?
Not daily. There is a monitoring procedure for it when its used, its checked off during pre-op.
Cleaning is weekly as its when we saw that the dirt starts to accumulate.
Will the fans be near open product or only in closed product areas? We had fans but only in areas where product wasn't exposed. And we bought big filters to put over top of them. We also only allowed them during summer when a certain temperature was reached so depending on when your audit is then it may not be an issue for you.
Which kind of filters are you using? We are in need of some that are not so expensive.
We are considering doing this same thing this year (2020). Is there any additional advice this group could provide concerning how it went putting fans in the production area? I'm greatly concerned because our SQF audit is in 12 days and it just started getting really hot on the shop floor due to the temp outside and the heat that the machinery gives off. I wanted to draw from this group's experience. I will conduct a risk assessment, talk to Cleaning department about adding fans to weekly cleaning and purchase of filters.
We are considering doing this same thing this year (2020). Is there any additional advice this group could provide concerning how it went putting fans in the production area? I'm greatly concerned because our SQF audit is in 12 days and it just started getting really hot on the shop floor due to the temp outside and the heat that the machinery gives off. I wanted to draw from this group's experience. I will conduct a risk assessment, talk to Cleaning department about adding fans to weekly cleaning and purchase of filters.
We ended up adding our fans to the sanitation schedule, we have to clean them more than once a week since we are a bakery so there's always flour in the air but depending on your company you could probably do it weekly. Also when you do environmental testing check the areas where the fans will hit.