Food manufacturers with a low-risk and high-care environment understand the importance of maintaining barrier control. The role of the barrier between the two areas is crucial for the following reasons:
- Microbial Contamination: High-care areas are designed to handle food products that are ready-to-eat or have undergone significant processing (cooking) to reduce microbial load. Low-risk areas might handle raw materials, packaging or less processed foods that may carry pathogens or allergens. A low-risk to high-care barrier, usually with some form of sanitising solution installed to mitigate the risk of cross contamination, is the best practice.
- Maintaining Hygiene Standards and Quality Control: High-care areas have stricter hygiene standards than low-risk, including temperature control, air quality, humidity. rigorous cleaning regimes with swabbing protocols and greater personal hygiene controls. A barrier ensures these standards are maintained in high-care.
- Food Safety Standards: Regulatory bodies like the BPR and others, have stringent guidelines for food safety. Maintaining barriers between different risk zones help factories comply with these regulations and avoid penalties and non-compliances.
- Audit & Inspections: During audits and inspections, clear separation between low-risk and high-care areas demonstrates adherence to best practices and regulatory requirements.
Maintaining a barrier between low-risk and high-care areas in the food factories is essential and the above measures collectively contribute to the safety and integrity of food products, protecting consumers and enhancing the factory's reputation.
Choosing the correct sanitising solution for barrier control depends on several factors:
- Time available to sanitise products effectively
- Type of production on site, dry or wet production areas
- Space available to install a sanitising solution
- The budget available
Current barrier sanitising solutions include:
Need help with a barrier solution? Please contact SOS Hygiene Technologies for more information at info@soshygiene.com or call 0161 221 2231
