Employee Hygiene Solutions for Hair Contamination
Hello everyone!
My question for the day is, does anyone have any helpful information for the prevention of hair getting into finished product? I work for a bakery manufacturer with roughly 80 employees involved with production. We wear hairnets, beard nets, smocks, and gloves. These items are checked on a regular basis to insure they are worn properly and at all times. But we still seem to receive customer complaints with picture evidence of loose hair in packaged treats.. Our company is looking into getting a industrial wind tunnel that the employees can walk through on their way to productions to see if dislodging and removing hair that way may be more effective but we i have been unsuccessful finding the equipment. I know they are a thing but I just cant seem to find a manufacturer or supplier of such equipment. Does anyone possible have any help with tracking down a supplier or have any suggestions on any other things we may be able to implement to lessen this occurrences?
Thanks
One of my clients, a bakery, used balaclavas to cover hair completely. For arm hairs, you could use plastic disposable sleeves.
I worked for a company that had those tape lint rollers that you were required to use before walking out. Also if you do not already, have you consider having uniforms that staff changes into? If that cost is high and locker rooms not feasible to build, you could also have uniform lab coats that staff wears before going out on the floor. I worked at a place that did that too and we had a service that took care of cleaning and resupplying lab coats.
Hello everyone!
My question for the day is, does anyone have any helpful information for the prevention of hair getting into finished product? I work for a bakery manufacturer with roughly 80 employees involved with production. We wear hairnets, beard nets, smocks, and gloves. These items are checked on a regular basis to insure they are worn properly and at all times. But we still seem to receive customer complaints with picture evidence of loose hair in packaged treats.. Our company is looking into getting a industrial wind tunnel that the employees can walk through on their way to productions to see if dislodging and removing hair that way may be more effective but we i have been unsuccessful finding the equipment. I know they are a thing but I just cant seem to find a manufacturer or supplier of such equipment. Does anyone possible have any help with tracking down a supplier or have any suggestions on any other things we may be able to implement to lessen this occurrences?
Thanks
I guess my question would be:
Why, given your industry standard preventive controls, are you still getting customer complaints for hair in product?
A deep dive Root Cause Analysis seems to be in order here.
Setting up a wind tunnel seems to be a rather hit or miss possible solution (and probably an expensive one at that) to solve a problem that you have not actually identified.
Not to mention, where does all this loose hair actually go when it is dislodged when walking through the wind tunnel?
Marshall
To add to previous posts, have you checked that personnel are following the correct robing and disrobing procedures, for example putting on a hairnet before the protective clothing?
Kind regards,
Tony
I agree with the above about conducting a more thorough investigation before investing in expensive solutions that might not address the root cause. Say for example, if picture evidence routinely shows hair in the package but not embedded in the finished good (or vice versa), you can narrow down where the hair is being introduced and evaluate solutions that may be less expensive. For example, it wouldn't do any good to add a wind tunnel for production employees if employees performing sanitation after your productions are the root cause.
Have you ruled out that staff are disposing of hair nets on exit and putting on fresh ones on entry to production (if that's indeed your procedure)? I've found before once or twice staff might keep their hairnet in their pocket when going on break and put the same one back on on re-entry, potentially inside out so hair is on the outside.
In our production facility, employees wear hair nets and a cap with a shawl type covering. They also wear beard nets (although the men are SUPPOSED to be clean shaven) face masks (even prior to COVID), scrub pants, smocks and disposable sleeves.
Similar to these, different levels wear different colors.
In our production facility, employees wear hair nets and a cap with a shawl type covering. They also wear beard nets (although the men are SUPPOSED to be clean shaven) face masks (even prior to COVID), scrub pants, smocks and disposable sleeves.
Similar to these, different levels wear different colors.
Unrelated to OP, but how has it been enforcing face masks in your facility?
Even during the pandemic, with multiple employees needing to quarantine due to getting sick, we have still gotten a lot of pushback from our team about wearing face masks.
Agreeing with all the comments above.
We also make sure to have various sizes of hairnets available so that people who want to wear a beanie (during cold months and for going into cold storage areas) are able to do so with a hairnet over, as well as for those who have more hair than others.
The team also does a good job of helping each other out by letting their teammates know if some hair is sticking out.
We put acrylic mirrors in the change room so that the team can see if their hair is being fully tucked inside and that there are no loose hairs on their PPE before entering.
Unrelated to OP, but how has it been enforcing face masks in your facility?
Even during the pandemic, with multiple employees needing to quarantine due to getting sick, we have still gotten a lot of pushback from our team about wearing face masks.
There are always those few people that need to be reminded to have their mask over their nose. But masks have been worn on the production floor here LONG before COVID, so it's pretty routine for most employees.
I would agree with Tony
It sounds like proper donning and doffing procedures are not being followed
If you're using a gravity feed system, are you sure the hairs are not blowing in the wind and landing at the top of the system?