How to Ensure Food Safety During Production

Anybody that works in food production knows that food safety needs to be a top priority. It even comes before great taste and aesthetic appeal.

This is because food can sometimes put people in danger. For example, your customers might get food poisoning or have an allergic reaction to one of your products. If these things were to happen, not only would you be responsible for putting somebody in harm’s way, but you could also face legal action.

 As such, for several different reasons, your food safety processes need to be effective and stringent. But what measures exactly do you need to put in place? Well, that’s what we are going to be talking about in our article today.

Read on to find out how you can ensure food safety in your production.

Choosing Your Factory Carefully

One of the main causes of allergic reactions and food poisoning is cross-contamination. This happens when residue is left behind from one food product and then is passed onto another food product.

Cross-contamination is a massive issue in the food production industry, especially when different products are being made in the same factory. As such, it is important to choose your factory layout carefully – taking into consideration what other product are made there, and what ingredients they use.

Finding the Right Suppliers

Your food production line isn’t the only area you need to worry about, unfortunately. Cross-contamination can also occur depending on your ingredient supplier. For example, if your supplier ships out hazelnut as well as cocoa, then you could potentially put your customers with nut allergies at risk of having a reaction. Fortunately, there are traceability systems which you can use to track the history of your ingredients. Companies such as https://www.stevenstraceability.com offers a range of traceability systems which are designed to help with allergen control and food manufacturing.

Washing Down Everything

The best way to ensure food safety is by thoroughly cleaning everything in your factory and production line. This includes the equipment, the assembly stations, your workers’ hands, and so on.

Cleaning will remove any residue left behind from other products, helping to prevent cross-contamination. Make sure to wash the equipment before and after use, of course. Maintaining a high standard of hygiene should also make food poisoning less of an issue for your food production company. After all, food poisoning is usually caused by bacteria in raw food products (like salmonella in chicken) or bacteria that people manage to pick up on their hands.

Appropriate Waste Management

Food safety can be compromised if you do not appropriately dispose of the waste in your factory. Not taking out the bins regularly, for example, might allow bacteria to infiltrate your food.

Poor waste management can also attract pests like flies and rats, which obviously are not sanitary and can cause contamination. Therefore, it is important to dispose of waste regularly and responsibly – not bringing the bins anywhere near the food products.

These are some effective ways to ensure food safety in your production. We hope you found this information helpful.