Achieving certifications like SQF Certification is a priority for food manufacturers seeking to establish a safer, more compliant facility. Meeting SQF food safety standards demands comprehensive measures, where worker safety is closely tied to food safety. Utilizing robust worker safety measures and high-quality PPE is essential to protect your consumers and your brand. Keystone Safety is committed to providing exceptional PPE products for the food processing industry.
The foundation of SQF-aligned quality & safety
SQF certification, offered through Quality & Safety Audits, requires facilities to adhere to stringent measures. PPE, encompassing items like disposable aprons, lab coats, sleeves, and gowns, is a necessary physical barrier across all operational zones—processing, production, and packaging. These items are a core component of safety & PPE, hand hygiene, and footwear and surface sanitation.
1. Processing & production zones: Mitigating cross-contamination
In the areas where food or ingredients are actively handled or prepared, the risk of contamination from personnel is highest. PPE is vital here to mitigate the threat of cross-contamination throughout the facility.
- Protective clothing: Disposable aprons, lab coats, sleeves, and gowns among other items act as a crucial barrier to keep physical contaminants off the product.
- Head and facial restraints: PPE like hair and beard restraints to prevent contaminants from reaching the food.
- Hand protection: Gloves are necessary PPE, including disposable options, which are critical for maintaining hygiene in their specific use cases.
- Footwear protection: To prevent contaminants from the outside from being tracked in, boot and shoe covers are necessary. Covers specifically help reduce the risk of accidents caused by hazardous footing, ensuring that worker safety maximizes food safety.
2. Packaging zones: Maintaining product integrity
Even as the product moves toward final packaging, adherence to high hygiene standards is required to maintain product integrity.
- Systemic compliance: Implementing color-coded PPE, which Nelson-Jameson offers through its most extensive collection of color-coded products for the food industry, is a best practice. A complete color-coded system helps prevent cross-contamination by ensuring tools stay in designated areas.
- Minimize risk: Utilizing color-coded PPE helps to minimize the risk of cross-contamination and promote food safety throughout the entire process, including packaging. This organizational feature also helps to promote organization & an efficient workflow.
Nelson-Jameson & Keystone Safety: Your partners in PPE
Keystone Safety offers a variety of Personal Protective Equipment, including shoe covers, hair and beard restraints, and protective clothing, with a focus on the food processing industry.
Discover more at Nelson-Jameson