SOP For Glass Breakage in Glass Bottle Bottling Area

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone out there could help me so I don't have to reinvent the wheel, or at least not all of it!

I am in need of a glass breakage SOP to use in a small area where we bottle water into glass bottles. We do on occasion anticipate that a glass bottle may fracture / smash within the small bottling plant we have as well so anyting on that would be helpful or any adive.

Any info would be most welcome.

Many thanks

Tim

Hi Tim

THis thread may help

http://www.ifsqn.com...kage-procedure/

 & if not I am sure there are others on the forum

Kind Regards

Mike

Without reading it one ours is basically:

Notify area employees and supervisor

Clean affected area with proper equipment (brush, dustpan, certain color equipment)

After the immediate area is cleaned search for glass in 3 concentric circles of something like 5' or so could be 10'... I think it's 5. (basically looking for more glass that flew out of the area)

dispose of all glass in a plastic bag (I believe)

Fill out glass breakage form.  Someone comes behind the cleaner to make sure there is no more glass.  The other person second signs the form.

remove the bag with the glass in it directly to the dumpster.

Deliver form to the office.

**Some food safety standards require you to have a part in the glass breakage form for the employees to check the bottom of their boots/shoes and clean them of any glass they may have picked up. I think SQF has that.

There might be a little more to it but that's the basics of ours without looking through it.

I posted a standard glass breakage procedure a few years ago in the forum mentioned by Mike.

There are some more specific discussions on risks/breakages in glass bottling on this forum:

One of the main concerns will be broken glass entering an open bottle which has been filled or is about to be filled and damaged/chipped bottles - 'Stop line Remove 50 bottles either side of breakage and clear up glass. It pays to have a good quality bottle.'

Regards,

Tony

Dear All,

Thanks for the info - helpful stuff.

Regards

Tim

Although this is from the U.S., this link to a .pdf file of the US FDA's "current thinking" on Glass Inclusion is fairly informative:

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/GuidanceRegulation/UCM252441.pdf

Although this is from the U.S., this link to a .pdf file of the US FDA's "current thinking" on Glass Inclusion is fairly informative:

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/GuidanceRegulation/UCM252441.pdf

Some useful stuff in there. I don't agree with this statement though:

Once introduced into a product container, the hazard of glass fragments may be controlled by (1) removing the fragments by cleaning the containers before filling or (2) detecting the fragments by visual inspection before or after filling.

I think relying on inspection equipment to detect glass fragments is risky, it is better to invert/rinse suspect containers and discard product that could have been contaminated.

Regards,

Tony