Simply put, food safety is essential when producing food. Good hygiene and cleaning practices increase food safety.
Zoning cleaning equipment, food handling tools, and other equipment and utensils into well-planned, color-coded areas enables you to achieve even more in the food safety field by reducing the risk of cross-contamination from one area to another.
Color coding is easy to implement if done correctly from the start. This guide gives you a brief introduction to the benefits of color coding – and some practical tips on how to put it into practice.
Why use color coding?
Color coding helps ensure greater food safety by making it easier to more effectively separate processes, zones, and equipment in your food production setup, and thus minimize cross-contamination. Color coding can be embedded into your work processes as a natural part of your Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP)s, or as a proactive risk-reduction step as part of your HACCP prerequisite program.
It's a must-have for GFSI approval
The GFSI (General Food Safety Initiative) approved food standards BRC, FSSC22000, IFS, and SQF all require special measures to prevent cross-contact and cross-contamination. Color coding is ideally suited to this. In the BRC standard, it is mandatory that your cleaning equipment is suitably identified for intended use, which could mean color coding.
The advantages of color coding
- You minimize the risk of your products becoming contaminated with microorganisms, allergens, or foreign bodies by separating steps, sections, and areas in the food production process.
- You reduce the risk and cost of product rejection and recall since there is a lower risk of cross-contamination in your finished products.
- You speed up your processes by ensuring equipment is easy to locate and kept in the right place. This approach is also in line with the HACCP principles on monitoring and checking.
- You help prevent misunderstandings. A color-coding system is easy to understand and learn – irrespective of language skills.
- You improve safety by promoting a culture that encourages employees to take ownership of their equipment and their work zones.
- Ensure that your equipment is stored correctly on hooks, hangers, or shadow boards to extend its service life.
- You reduce costs linked to replacing equipment, because tools last longer. You reduce the quantity of tools and equipment used in food production.
- You create a neat, well-ordered work area, with a clearly visible focus on food safety. This makes an attractive impression on customers, authorities, auditors, and other visitors.
Tips and tricks on how to implement color coding effectively
Use contrasting colors. Color contrast enables you to easily spot plastic fragments or stray bristles from food production equipment. You should, of course, always inspect and replace cleaning equipment and food-handling tools as soon as they begin to show signs of wear.
Use color-blind-friendly combinations.
1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women are color-blind. Use different shades and contrasts to make it easier for color-blind staff to differentiate colors. If in doubt, take a photo of the colors and convert the photo into black and white. If you can tell the difference, the shade differentiation is strong enough.
Avoid complicated color combinations.
We recommend not combining colors on individual tools or tool groups but instead using the same color for handles as well as broom/ squeegee heads
Keep it simple. Limit the number of colors as much as possible. Do not try to assign colors for each and every step of a complicated process. If the color-coding system is too complicated, your staff may not understand or follow it.
Make sure the colors make sense.
The colors you select should make sense to your employees. If possible, you should select colors that are logically associated with a specific zone or food product, though they should still visually contrast.
Use signs to make it clear.
Support your color-coding system with good signage (using images or multilingual text where necessary) to ensure it is followed correctly. Avoid complicated color combinations. We recommend not combining colors on individual tools or tool groups, but instead using the same color for handles as well as broom/ squeegee heads.
Fully carry out the color-coding program.
Implement your color-coding system within all the zones affected at the same time. For greater clarity, have a definite date for phasing out your old system, and a clear start date for your new color-coded system.
Communicate your plan clearly throughout the facility.
Meet with each of your shift managers first to ensure they understand the system, then roll out the program to other employees.
Select colors that will accommodate all your cleaning and food handling needs.
We recommend using the standard colors (green, blue, red, white, and yellow) in the larger color zones where many different kinds of cleaning equipment and food handling tools are needed. You can use other colors – such as pink, orange, purple, and lime – in smaller areas focused on high risk and allergen control that use fewer pieces of cleaning equipment and food handling tools.
Color match your tools and storage areas.
Make sure tools are stored in the same area where they are used, and use color-coded storage, such as shadow boards and wall brackets.
Follow through.
Ensure your purchasing department, quality manager, and employees use the same documentation so everyone can follow the same system.
Set up a color-coding maintenance plan.
Regularly monitor and review your color-coding plan and check and maintain your equipment to maximize your control of cross-contamination.
In the food production and processing industry, tightly controlled systems and procedures are essential for complying with regulations – and ensuring food safety. A color-coding system for your work areas, tools, and equipment is a simple way to prevent cross-contamination and ensures you are better prepared to meet GFSI-approved food safety standards. When correctly implemented, color-coding should be easy to follow and encourage employees to take extra responsibility for food safety and cleanliness in their work area.
Learn more about color coding
Vikan
Vikan is a leading supplier of hygienic cleaning tools and insight for the food & beverage industry and other hygiene-sensitive environments in North America.
