Can the RTE and RAW room have a shared wash room?
Hi all,
We are currently in the planning stage of a huge remodel at work. We are located in the US and are a USDA plant and will be gaining SQF certifcation shortly. We grind, stuff and smoke pork sausages over a wood fire then chill and cryo pack, so both raw and RTE sides onsite. There currently is a passage from RTE to raw to push racks that are empty back to be washed and reused. All equipment onsite use NFDM so allergens are not a issue.
My question is: Can the RTE and RAW room have a shared wash room? I attached a drawing of what I would like to do. Majority or equipment is on wheels that would be washed in this area.
Thanks
Washroom.pdf 16.05KB 23 downloads
Ah, you are talking about equipment washing not washrooms for people
It's not best practice--is there any way to you segregate that room into 2 sections?
When the cleaning occurs, material is going to spray everywhere, so salmonella, ecoli listeria that may be present on the raw side WILL end up in your RTE area
The only other option would be dedicated days for raw vs RTE, but you'd have to do a full washdown on the equipment washing room (including drains) in between
This would allow way too much "room" for error.
Thus, the answer is no.
Is there any possibility to further divide the washing room into RTE and RAW sides? For example, build a wall down the middle. Unfortunately that means you'd need double the cleaning equipment (sinks, drains, etc), but the risk potential of raw product contaminating RTE is too high to ignore here. If water connections already exist in the room, you may be able to just split connections as needed. Just make sure the pressure in the line is adequate even after splitting.
Thanks for the quick responses. I did have the thought of dividing the room in half with FRP boards and have two separate rooms. Honestly this place is a mess and was built by cobbling old buildings together over the last 100 years. Let me get back to the drawing board...... thanks.
Since you've mentioned the age of the building--I'm going to suggest that you have the drains pigged and flushed and cleaned prior to start up. you can almost guarantee that there is listeria in them