Knife control in a food business

Want to learn how to implement knife control in your food business? Check out episode 20 of HACCP Mentor Review to find out how, along with some other great food safety HACCP compliance tips and tricks.

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Welcome

Hi and welcome to Episode 20 of HACCP Mentor Review. This episode we discuss service suppliers and who they really are, food business culture around rules for some but not for all and I share a really simply way to control knives in your food business. As usual, the week action item, food recall wrap up and latest food poisoning is also covered.

Thanks

Before we get into this episode I want to quickly say thanks for all of your emails letting me know that you appreciate my efforts in putting out these HACCP Mentor reviews. It is great to know that people are learning new things and others are refreshing their knowledge. I love getting your feedback so let me know what you think and contact me or leave a comment below this episode.

Knife control

A really simple way to implement knife control in your production area is to make up a “knife control shadow board” with magnetic background. You can then visually see when a knife has not been replaced to the correct storage location.

Food Poisoning Outbreaks

This episodes food poisoning outbreak comes to you from the USA where an outbreak of Hepatitis A has been attributed to the consumption of frozen berry product. Over 30 people have now been reported as being infected with Hepatitis A  after eating this product.

Service suppliers

Your approved supplier program needs to not only cover those who supply your raw materials like food ingredient and food packaging, but also suppliers of services to your business.  Some examples of service suppliers can include pest control, contract cleaning, finished product transport and distribution, testing laboratories, uniform cleaning, waste management and storage facilities.

All of the services suppliers that I have just listed can have a direct impact on your food product. These service suppliers need to be adequately assessed and managed to ensure that your product is not adversely affected and remains safe at all times.

Recall Wrap Up

Some of the food recalls notified in the past week include:

  • Listeria contamination of Gouda Cheese, cold smoked salmon products, dairy products
  • Undeclared allergen sulphite in shrimp
  • Undeclared walnuts in Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies
  • Salmonella contamination in shell hazelnuts
  • Insect infestation in Coriander Seeds
  • Pieces of plastic in chocolate bars and potato crisps

The reason HACCP Mentor reports on recent food recalls is to trigger you to ensure that you have assessed and control similar hazards in your business. Your finished product may be similar to those reported or they may be an input into your own process.

Rules for some but not for all

One of the quickest ways to be given a non-conformance during an audit is if your business has the culture of ‘rules for some but not for all’.  Any example of this would be say that management or office staff do not comply with the same personal hygiene rules that production staff or food handlers have to comply with. The wearing of jewellery and hairnets is an example that I generally see. If management are not setting the correct example how do you expect staff to follow the rules. It comes back to the culture of the organisation, so step up and lead by example if this is an issue in your food business.

Action item of the week

This week I want you to check something that is really obvious – are all lights adequately covered? This is especially important in the production, storage and warehouse areas. If your business has shatter-proof globes in place, make sure that your have evidence to support that they are in use in each lighting unit. This is also a good time to check that light covers are secured and there is no collection of dead insects in the light fittings.

Leave your Comments

That wraps it up for another week so don’t forget to leave your comments below this episode. I am Amanda Evans from www.haccpmentor.com and I will hopefully catch up with you in the next episode of HACCP Mentor Review.

13 thoughts on “Knife control in a food business”

  1. Thanks a lot Amanda… HOW HELPFUL IS THAT
    I would like you to tell us about the effectiveness of using Gloves and is it the same efficiency if I use only sanitizer instead of it.

    1. Hi Ahmed…I will cover your question in a coming episode so stay tuned. Many thanks for your comment, Amanda

  2. Amanda these short videos are great. I’d like to know if you have a link established for all episodes? I’d like to run these as part of a continual training processes so that it is in front of our employees. Thanks again

    1. Thanks Dan! I will will work on a tab where you can view all past episodes in the coming week. Thanks again, Amanda.

  3. Hi Amanda, I think that you did a great job on this. Thank you for your efforts. The section, “Rules for some, but not for all”. I would even say that that is a problem that needs to be fixed before a food company can go to the next level. I see that way of thinking quite a bit. Again, thank you for this.

  4. Carlo Silvestri

    Thank you, Amanda. Your regular reviews are very helpful and definitely spur me on and remind me about sometimes obscure things to follow up on.

    Thanks again.

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