Food hygiene, or food safety, is defined as handling, storing, or preparing food and beverages to reduce the risk of consumers becoming unwell from food-borne diseases. Food safety aims to stop food from becoming contaminated and causing illnesses such as food poisoning.
Bearing this in mind, ensuring that the food in the food manufacturing business is safe for human consumption is one of the most critical parts of the food preparation process. However, while this may be true, knowing how to implement hygiene practices in a food manufacturing business can be challenging. If you own a food manufacturing business and want to know how to do this, keep reading below; we’ve made a list of some of our top tips to help you:
1. Ensure You Have Enough Hygiene Facilities
One of the best tips we can give you is to ensure you have enough hygiene and changing facilities for your employees. This includes places where your employees can wash their hands and creating areas where they can change into appropriate clothing and PPE before entering the manufacturing area. By doing this, you are taking a huge step towards meeting the highest level of compliance and hygiene.
2. Choose the Right Equipment
Another brilliant tip is to be careful when choosing new equipment for your business. While all food processing equipment can be cleaned, not everything can be cleaned easily. For example, if you’re purchasing a new pump for your food manufacturing business, instead of purchasing a basic pump, consider purchasing positive-replacement-type pumps. These pumps are notoriously easy to clean and have many other benefits.
3. Think About the Design of the Production Area
When designing your production area, ensure that the layout flows in one direction, from raw materials to finished products. While not everyone can re-design space to make it flow better, if you can, this can significantly reduce the chances of cross-contamination and food-borne diseases. And that’s not all; it can also improve productivity and efficiency.
4. Follow Proper Practices
Food manufacturing businesses must ensure proper practices for storing raw materials. Raw materials should be stored away from finished products to reduce the risk of cross-production flow contamination.
5. Think About Surface Finishes
In high-risk areas, it’s imperative to choose suitable surface finishes. Doing so can significantly reduce the chances of bacteria infecting your food. Stainless steel is one surface option that is perfect for these areas. This type of surface is easy to clean and maintain.
6. Ensure There is Sufficient Drainage in Production Areas
Sufficient drainage in production areas will prevent the risk of puddling. While this might not sound like a huge issue, it can be. Puddling water can increase the chances of legionella occurring.
If you own a food manufacturing business, you want to do everything possible to keep your customers safe from food-borne diseases like salmonella poisoning. The great news is that you won’t go far wrong if you follow our advice above.
