3 replies to this topic

[Elan]

Hi All,

Is it important for a food warehouse to measure the level of humidity inside the warehouse or even during receiving of food items ? Is this a requirement from the standard ? Is there any way we can justify not to have a humidity level test ?

[Simon]

Hi All,

Is it important for a food warehouse to measure the level of humidity inside the warehouse or even during receiving of food items ? Is this a requirement from the standard ? Is there any way we can justify not to have a humidity level test ?

It must depend on whether the food item is affected by humidity, which I imagine depends on what the food item is and how it is packaged etc. Do you have high humidity problems in the warehouse? Have you ever had spoilage issues caused by humidity? Is it one type of food item you are storing or a range of food items? Who is the customer, what parametres do they specify for humidity? I doubt ISO 22000 will tell you to measure / control humidity, but it will require you to measure and control all things that affect food safety and quality.

We need more information Elan.

Simon

[Elan]

Dear Simon,

We are a third party warehouse which can store anything, food and non food product. At the moment we do not measure the the level of humidity in our warehouse. We just receive a comment from our Consultant that we should start to monitor the level of humidity. I am not sure if it will be adding value to our operation / process. How to I investigate and prove to the Consultant that the level of humidity has no impact on the spoilage of food. By the way, we never had such and incident. Our customer never specifies anything on the humidity as well ? Do chambers in -20 degrees have humidity issues ?

[Phillip Huff]

We are fortunate that the humidity levels are very low in our region, however, auditors always ask if we measure humidity levels. Their concern is with yeast and mold growth on boxes (a problem multiple auditors have mentioned). In cold rooms/freezers its less of an issue however product quality issues may arise through inadvertent ice crystal growth in products in high moisture environments.
I am just glad that its one measure we don't have to make.