3 replies to this topic

[Isaac_Gallardo]

Good morning everyone, I would like to reach out to this community to think outside the box. We recently had our FSSC22000 Audit. During the audit, it was found non-food grade chemicals in a food-grade cabinets. Also, in previous audits, it was found food-grade chemicals in non-food grade cabinets. We have had this issue for multiple years. Actions we have taken: Chemical identification outside the chemical cabinets. So, associates understand/remember food grade and non-food grade products. Locked chemical cabinets, only department supervisors have access to it. But, from time-to-time, they give the key to other associates to get or put back the chemicals they took. Chemical cabinet audits, with this initiative we have been able to reinforce the expectation. But, we cannot audit it forever. This might be a behavioral attitude, and wonder what approach would you take to solve this problem? have you experienced this problem before? how did you solve it? Thank you!

[Slab]

This has been a constant problem even more so with repurposing of used chemical containers for other uses. It has abated somewhat but maintenance personnel will get slack on occasion without supervision. 

 

I started with documented training for maintenance personnel with an emphasis on how to read a label and determine if it's food grade or not (H1, E3, etc), and then holding supervisory personnel accountable with disciplinary action if necessary. I figure if my hair is going to grey, then so will theirs...

 

Color coded labels at receiving (i.e. orange for food grade, blue for non-food grade) have helped with a quick visual ID at the storage end, and monthly inventories with audits conducted by myself.  

[Scampi]

issue small cans by employee---they must sign it out from the maintenance supervisor.

Then you can issue HR warnings as the terms of employment include following all programs within the facility

 

I'm with Slab.....make the SUPERVISORs responsible, not you. Once they feel the pain, they will get everyone in line quickly. You need HRs buy in in order for this to work

 

So perhaps, step one is formal retraining with the maintenance department, explaining the new process. Then everyone has been fairly warned and you can easily process step 1 warnings with the employees not following the rules.  Maybe put a $$ with the error----if you had to hold or rework or recall product, what does that look like, what could the implications be?  Try and relate it back to their own lives........we all expect our food to be safe, we all shop for groceries at the same places.

 

I always try to work extra hard to build a relationship with Maintenance, they are usually 1 of 2 things. Your biggest ally or biggest problem

[SQFconsultant]

 

Good morning everyone, 

 

I would like to reach out to this community to think outside the box. We recently had our FSSC22000 Audit. During the audit, it was found non-food grade chemicals in a food-grade cabinets. Also, in previous audits, it was found food-grade chemicals in non-food grade cabinets. We have had this issue for multiple years.

 

Actions we have taken:

 

Chemical identification outside the chemical cabinets. So, associates understand/remember food grade and non-food grade products.

 

Locked chemical cabinets, only department supervisors have access to it. But, from time-to-time, they give the key to other associates to get or put back the chemicals they took.

 

Chemical cabinet audits, with this initiative we have been able to reinforce the expectation. But, we cannot audit it forever. 

 

This might be a behavioral attitude, and wonder what approach would you take to solve this problem? have you experienced this problem before? how did you solve it?

 

Thank you!

 

hi Isaac, so i get that each cabinet is marked either food grade and the other non-food grade, they are locked, supervisors have the keys but they sometimes give them to others, you don't want to audit forever, employees are trained ---

 

You have a severe problem...

 

1. only authorized people should have a key for these cabinets and they are the ones that will open them, take out what is needed, log it out, log it back in and of course lock the cabinet again.  Under no circumstances does anyone get a key handed to them. that is really poorly managed.

 

2. you don't have a choice in safety and security, you build this in to your internal auditing and do it everyday.

 

3. Making only the supervisors handle this means they are the ones that get trained fully with minimal training for line-employees. One of the biggest issues I ALWAYS see is understanding what is non-food and food grade, as in how to identify these - even for supervisors. We have the suppliers provide us with statements that indicate same and we never use anything that is not a part of our approved list.

 

4. The fish rots from the head down - thus if there is a mess-up again you can quickly identify the supervisor that needs retraining, action or firing.

 

5. We had a supervisor that just didn't want to take a step out of his office, it was too much work for him, this created an incident that went far beyond getting a gig on an external audit - it ended hurting two employees badly... get your act together before you allow your own employees to kill someone... and yes, that supervisor doesn't have to worry about leaving his office anymore, he was fired and that is built into our gmps, safety and security policies under actions we will take to protect our customers, ownership and fellow employees.