Requirements for Hygienic Construction of Walls

I was going through requirments of SQF for walls. It says internal surface of wall shall be smooth. In examples they say For efficiency and ease of cleaning, walls with a cement render and smooth finish, glazed tiles, fabricated insulated panels or similar materials are examples of acceptable surfaces.

In our processing area we have a wall build with concrete block and then we have painted it with paint (oil based). It looks smooth but not perfectly smooth like wall rendered with cement. We can see each block of concrete and edge filled by cement to join two block of concerete. everything is painted.

Any one have idea that this kind of wall will be acceptable in SQF or not.



Regards

Dave

Dear Dave,

IMEX, for any standard, it's a "simple" hygienic risk analysis situation.

Cement per se is normally acceptable as a material although may be difficult to clean / look "cheap", but not if it's crumbling, etc > significant risk.

Painting requires food grade products if significant risk of contamination, eg food contact (??).

So what does yr SQF standard say ??

Rgds / Charles.C

well first thing is SQF is not mine.... he he he
Just kidding

Actually SQF does not say anything like this. It jsut has sentences as stated in my post. But also remember not all the companies do what is the best. Some of them want to stick to the minimum to comply, and there this kind of problem comes.

Also it depends which kind of auditor you are getting. Something acceptable to me will not acceptable by auditor. You know that. So sometimes we need to rely totaly on auditor. If he listen to your arguments than its great but if not than you can do nothing.

Dave

Yes there may be some discrepancy based on auditor but IMO as long as you can show the records that prove the wall is being cleaned on a routine basis, as well as show that these walls are monitored in your environmental testing program - you should comply with SQF standards without any fuss.

If you find through environmental testing that this wall cannot be cleaned adequately the way it is designed, then this is a bigger problem than not being able to meet SQF standards.

Best of luck as you continue your SQF venture

Now that calls for second very important question.

Does environmental monitoring program mendator?

We do not have that in place.... currently....

Dave

It is not mandatory for SQF certification but we use Environmental Monitoring as our Verification for the effectiveness of sanitation. (Clause 6.7.2.2)

What are you doing to verify the effectiveness of cleaning/sanitation? You can verify by visual pre-op inspections of your processing equipment and facility - it doesn't have to include testing. This may be more than sufficient depending upon the type of products you produce. (Our company produces a ready-to-eat, high pH product that is more susceptible to bacteria growth so we err on the side of caution and have a robust environmental monitoring program.)

Developing an environmental monitoring program however, IMO will do more good than harm as you may be surprised at what you find through testing that you can improve on - so even though it may be costly, it will be well worth it.

we produce dry powder mixes like soup base, cup cakes, pan cake mixes. Everything is dry powder. When its a small company than cost does matter....

Dave

In that case, I would think that by showing sanitation records and monitoring these type of walls during internal audits you should be fine.

Trust me I learned the hard way on this but keep in mind when implementing SQF for your company that these standards are written for all types of food manufacturing facilities so always keep in mind the risk to your products in each SQF clause. Many requirements are broadly written for your own interpretation for your company and products. Some requirements may not necessarily apply to your facility and/or processes.

Thanks stsqf for your helpful insight.

Regards
Dave

Dear Dave,

we produce dry powder mixes like soup base, cup cakes, pan cake mixes. Everything is dry powder. When its a small company than cost does matter.

Well charles we do verity our sanitation but we do not have any environmental program. sanitation of wall is just visual inspection during pre op. Zone 1 which is equipment, verification is done with ATP for each cleaning. But for walls we have never taken a swab. Believe me if its in my hand i can blindly start environmental program but sometimes everything is not in your hand.... hope you understand my situation....

Dear Dave,

But for walls we have never taken a swab.

Yes that is the reason we are about to start environmental program..

Thanks charles and stsqf

Regards
Dave