Non RTE Production Area - disposable shoe covers vs safety shoes?

Hi all

I manage a small production facility where we produce frozen ready meals - none of our products are RTE but obviously there is an element of risk in the production due to the nature of the products.

We are a small business, working towards SALSA - we are not BRC as we are far too small and very much start-up phase, however I try to implement as many higher standard processes as possible to ensure we are doing the best we can. 

Currently our PPE includes disposable shoe covers; the team put these over their regular outside shoes before entering the production area (along with hairnet / beardnet / safety jacket) and are not allowed to wear them anywhere other than the production area (ie. if they leave to go on break/to toilet etc, they are removed, binned and a fresh set applied on re-entry). However... disposable shoe covers are really expensive!

Therefore I'm looking at instead getting everyone a pair of kitchen-style safety shoes (crocs or similar) which they can change into before entering production - from a cost perspective this makes more sense as it's an initial cost and then nothing recurring. However I'm not sure whether these are better / worse from a safety perspective? 

Keen to hear people's views on if there is a better/worse option here of if it's much of a muchness. IMO the disposable covers feel safer in that there is no risk of re-contamination (ie. they are binned immediately when leaving, fresh pair applied on re-entry) whereas I would worry the shoes would become dirty themselves and become a source of contamination. We don't have a huge amount of space for them to be stored or cleaned (we don't have a changing area as such, more just a small 'zone' in front of the production entrance door, and nowhere to install a boot washing system etc.) What is standard practice for cleaning of shoes - would this need to be done at the end of every shift? I also think it's more likely someone accidentally walks off to the toilet in their safety shoes as they are similar to normal shoes, vs the disposable covers which are hard to forget about!

Aware I'm not really asking a specific question here but just interested to get any thoughts / input / advice! 

I would stick with what you're currently doing until you get a larger space

Hello. 

I would go for production shoes/wellies. Overshoes are slippy, rip quite easily and don't cover all of the shoe. I personally struggle to get through a site walk around with the overshoes staying on never mind a full shift. 

I would suggest a boot wash and wash at the end of every shift, spray with sanitiser and store. 

If you can't get a boot wash, you can get mats that hold sanitiser in to clean bottom of shoe on when exiting production - though this doesn't account for heavy soiling / debris stuck in soles. You would at least need a separate sink to scrub them in when needed, not in production areas and not a hand wash sink. 

I agree with the comment RE easier to leave on when going to the toilet - though this comes down to effective training.

I like the capture program, but the space issue could be a problem - and then there are two sides to a walk-thru mat filled with sanitizer water in that sanitizer water becomes in-effective quickly based on traffic, so there is constant testing and changing of the solution.

We have limited space but were able to put in a washer/sanitizer at the entrance - this one you step into and it automatically balances out the solution.