5 replies to this topic

[Marocopanda]

Hello,

 

we have two different production departments (confectionery and nut roasting) that have different allergens. We use cleaning utensils of different colours for each department to manage allergens. Previous quality manager has taken an extra step and separated the utensils by more colours for each process (before thermal process and after thermal process for each department, but the processes are not sepparated by walls in each department). Because our products are low risk I would like to use only one colour for each department (green for whole nut roasting and yellow for whole of confectionery). Would this pose a risk for products? The employees mix the cleaning utensils at the moment and I want to make the cleaning process easier.

[Evans X.]

Greetings V.,

 

Did the previous manager mention somewhere why he/she did this extra separation? Maybe he thought of it like an unclean area before the thermal process and clean area after?

However, I don't really see any reason as to why not just use two colors separation as it was. Even if you perform a hazard analysis, in my opinion the danger will come back as minimal, given the nature of your product also.

 

Regards!

[kfromNE]

Are the items considered RTE once the thermal process took place. Your risks microbiological risks are different. That is why the quality manager had 4 different colors - allergen and microbiological.

[Marocopanda]

Currently the coding is this which makes it difficult to control.

Production before thermal processes and after thermal process of each department is in the same room

 

Confectionery before thermal process – utensils with orange ring

Floors – yellow

Equipment - white

Allergens  weighting- red

 

Confectionery after thermal process – utensils with orange ring

Floors – green

Equipment - blue

 

Nuts before thermal – utensils with blue ring

Floors – yellow

Equipment - white

Allergens weighting- red

 

Nuts after thermal - utensils with blue ring

Floors – green

Equipment - blue

 

 

 

I want to change it to:

Confectionery

Floors – yellow

Equipment - white

Allergen weighting – different scoop for each allergen

 

Nuts

Floors - green

Equipment - blue

Allergen weighting – different scoop for each allergen

Edited by v.aniuliene, 27 October 2022 - 02:43 PM.

[Gelato Quality Lead]

Wow, that is a lot of colors and I can see where team members could get very confused. 

 

 

In our facility (full RTE, no kill-step), we try to keep things as simple as possible since the more complicated things get, the more room for error there is. And the errors that can occur could vary in severity.

 

Do you think that it is necessary to have different colors for cleaning different areas? We use the following:

 

zone 1 (food contact): white brushes

zone 2 (close to food contact): green brushes

floors and drains: red brushes

 

All cleaning tools are thoroughly cleaned and sanitized after usage. Our allergen control plan requires allergen-containing areas to be cleaned last, to eliminate allergen cross-contact. We wash scoops after every use so our scoops are not color-coded. 

 

We also swab for ATP and allergens (total protein swabs) before and after cleaning to verify.

 

You could validate your cleaning process to see if you are creating any risks by minimizing the amount of color-coding.

[kfromNE]

That is a lot - I can understand why you would want to make it simpler. I would do a risk assessment. Look at cross contact and microbiological risks.

If the risks are low - different colors not needed. If the risk is high - different colors.