SQFP in fresh produce
Hey folks!
Ive been a Food Safety Coordinator for about 10 years now, working in fresh produce (fresh mushrooms), a chocolate manufacturer (I gained so much weight), and a probiotic manufacturer (Lost the weight). I have forgotten my IFSQN login details a couple of times, and I swear THIS time, I won't.
I have most of my experience running an SQF program, with a touch of experience in BRC, but not a whole lot.
I've recently returned to my old stomping grounds at a mushroom producer, and I've found the food safety culture has gotten extremely weak. I've got a few inklings as to the root cause for this, one of the inklings being commitment from middle management is an issue. The office staff seems to feel they are exempt from our GMPs, because they spend 95% of their time upstairs, away from the production area...
But there is that 5% of time, when they are walking to or from the punch clock (which is inconveniently located in the production area) or when they are "just popping down for a second to talk to someone". They of course feel that it is perfectly fine for them to wear their skirts and heels, and zero hairnet to just go punch in and out. Note that this is an area where there is exposed product.
Now that I'm back at this facility for good, I want to make it clear that building the food safety culture back up is my prime directive, and I cannot do that without commitment from management. Sr Mgmt is generally on board with food safety actions, so I am hoping they will back me up when I explain that the rules are for everyone.
ANYWAY. This was just supposed to be a hello! I hope everyone is having a great week, and I look forward to spamming the forum with my questions (Kidding, sort of), while hopefully offering some meaningful input from time to time.
Cheers!
Welcome back GrowInTheDark,
With the support of Senior Management I am sure that you can get these people to toe the line and that should make quite a big impact.
When I first started in the dairy industry we had spotters on the line to pull out dirty/damaged bottles. They would wander down to the production line with a cup of coffee and enjoy a smoke as and when whilst pulling out the odd bottle. :yikes:
Seems like a different world now (or maybe a bad dream).
Good luck,
Tony
welcome back. Sounds like job one is to move your time clock to a more common sense area.
Sounds for sure like the time clock needs to either be moved, or a second one installed for office staff to utilize.
As for them entering production, this isn't just a violation of your company's GMP policy, or your GFSI standard, it is a breech of the law. Alert the staff in a companywide communique, post new signage at all production entrances, and start writing it up in deviation reports and GMP audits. These rules are not negotiable, and your office staff is putting your operation and product at risk.
I've struggled with challenges similar when I started in a small family run spice tolling operation. Maintenance guy's shop was at the end of a series of warehouse suites we rented, so he would drive his golf cart across the parking lot and up a ramp through a rollup door into the active production area and sometimes be kind enough to put his cigarette out before he parked the cart directly at the line he was working on. It took a few conversations, namely "hey, we're SQF certified now and these old habits don't fly anymore." He came around, and started parking in front of the production suite, carrying tools in through the office where I sat, and entered production following all GMP protocols. He became my voice of reason with other named family members who held management positions there, so it wasn't just "that new guy we hired for QA" telling generations of family members to stop breaking the rules. Another proud day was when I got the warehouse manager to finally stop carrying a spit cup on his forklift. His argument was always "I don't go into production, it doesn't matter if I'm dipping while loading/unloading sealed freight." Eventually even he came around, so my only advice is to hang in there and be the squeaky wheel until things change.
Hey folks!
Ive been a Food Safety Coordinator for about 10 years now, working in fresh produce (fresh mushrooms), a chocolate manufacturer (I gained so much weight), and a probiotic manufacturer (Lost the weight). I have forgotten my IFSQN login details a couple of times, and I swear THIS time, I won't.
I have most of my experience running an SQF program, with a touch of experience in BRC, but not a whole lot.
I've recently returned to my old stomping grounds at a mushroom producer, and I've found the food safety culture has gotten extremely weak. I've got a few inklings as to the root cause for this, one of the inklings being commitment from middle management is an issue. The office staff seems to feel they are exempt from our GMPs, because they spend 95% of their time upstairs, away from the production area...
But there is that 5% of time, when they are walking to or from the punch clock (which is inconveniently located in the production area) or when they are "just popping down for a second to talk to someone". They of course feel that it is perfectly fine for them to wear their skirts and heels, and zero hairnet to just go punch in and out. Note that this is an area where there is exposed product.
Now that I'm back at this facility for good, I want to make it clear that building the food safety culture back up is my prime directive, and I cannot do that without commitment from management. Sr Mgmt is generally on board with food safety actions, so I am hoping they will back me up when I explain that the rules are for everyone.
ANYWAY. This was just supposed to be a hello! I hope everyone is having a great week, and I look forward to spamming the forum with my questions (Kidding, sort of), while hopefully offering some meaningful input from time to time.
Cheers!
Welcome back, I look forward to hearing more about the ups and downs in a production facility :)