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Food Safe Detectable Products. Within the
food and pharmaceutical industries
there is an ever-present risk of
contamination that, if undetected,
can result in damage to equipment,
costs incurred through product
recalls, harm to the company's
reputation and, in the worst case,
serious injury to somebody
inadvertently consuming the
contaminant. A relatively
straightforward measure that can be
taken is to use only metal
implements - such as spatulas,
scoops and scrapers - and install an
inline metal detection system that
can detect any metallic
contamination of the product and
automatically reject it.
However, there are drawbacks with
this approach. For instance, metal
implements are costly, especially if
manufactured from stainless steel,
they can be heavy, and the
geometries that can be created at a
reasonable cost are somewhat
limited. In some cases, therefore,
plastic implements are used, with
the polymer grade selected so as to
minimise the chance of breakage.
Nevertheless, using plastic
implements carries with it a risk
that small fragments could
contaminate the product and remain
undetected.
EU hygiene legislation which took
effect on 1 January 2006, with the
primary objective being to optimise
public health protection by
improving and modernising the
existing EU legislation. The new
legislation maintains, and sets out
more clearly, the duty of food
business operators to produce food
safely. This is a requirement that
is contained in current legislation
and is underpinned in general food
law. Requirements for food business
operators are laid down in the new
EU Regulation 852/2004.
It is intended that the more
risk-based and flexible procedures
will better match the needs of
individual businesses and
enforcement agencies. This will be
facilitated by the introduction of
food safety management procedures
based on the application of Hazard
Analysis and Critical Control Points
(HACCP) principles. HACCP-based
principles are widely regarded
throughout the EU and in most
developed countries as crucial to
the management of food safety and,
in turn, consumer protection. On 1
January 2006 it became a legal
requirement for all food businesses
(except primary producers) to put in
place, implement and maintain a
permanent procedure or procedures
based on HACCP principles.
These principles prescribe a certain
number of requirements that must be
met throughout the cycle of
production, processing and
distribution in order to permit, via
hazard analysis, identification of
the critical points that need to be
kept under control in order to
guarantee food safety: identify any
hazards that must be prevented,
eliminated or reduced to acceptable
levels; identify the critical
control points at the step or steps
at which control is essential;
establish critical limits beyond
which intervention is necessary;
establish and implement effective
monitoring procedures at critical
control points; establish corrective
actions when monitoring indicates
that a critical control point is not
under control; implement own-check
procedures to verify whether the
measures adopted are working
effectively; and keep records to
demonstrate the effective
application of these measures and to
facilitate official controls by the
competent authority.
Consumer
complaints are a constant problem for most food companies and so
prevention and control should be high on the list of priorities
for Quality & Technical Managers.
Management and control of foreign
bodies require attention to many areas of the business. Areas
including, recruiting and staff training, source of raw
materials, packaging, factory design, manufacturing equipment
etc.
A relatively straightforward
measure that can be taken is to use only metal implements
- such as spatulas, scoops and scrapers - and install an
inline metal detection system that can detect any metallic
contamination of the product and automatically reject it.
The law states that " Food fails
to comply with food safety requirements if : it is unsafe
for human consumption or it is so contaminated (whether by
extraneous or otherwise) that is would not be reasonable to
expect it to be used for human consumption in that state"
Section 8 (2) (B & C) of the Food Safety Act 1990.
The law allows defences for all
reasonable precautions and all due diligence when a company may
be faced with a prosecution for a foreign body complaint.
In order to demonstrate that you
have taken all reasonable against a foreign body getting into
your products and showing that you have used all due diligence,
a 6 point plan may be used.
Part 1 & 3 of this plan can be
used in conjunction with the implementation of Detectamet
products into your factory.
1) CONSIDER THE HAZARDS - WHAT
FOREIGN BODIES MAY BE IDENTIFIED AS POTENTIAL HAZARD TO YOUR
PRODUCT - IF THEY ARE VITAL FOR THE PRODUCTION OF YOUR PRODUCT /
OR THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF STAFF THEN CHANGE TO DETECTAMET
PRODUCT RANGE FOR ITEMS SUCH AS GLOVES, PENS , EARPLUGS, SCOOPS
ETC ETC
2) JUDGE THE CONCERNS
3) SELECT AND INSTALL SUITABLE
CONTROLS - (METAL DETECTORS, MAGNETS, SIEVES, DETECTAMET
PRODUCTS)
4) INTEGRATE THE CONTROLS INTO A
WHOLE PLAN
5) SET UP REVIEW SYSTEM AND
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT PLAN
6) MAINTAIN FULL RECORDS
Detectable plastic
A novel material has recently been
developed that could help food and pharmaceutical
manufacturers comply with the new Regulations and, more
importantly, give them the opportunity to use cost-effective,
functional, ergonomic plastic implements that are approved for
food-contact use. A key feature of products manufactured from
this material is that fragments are detected and rejected
by standard in-process metal detection equipment.
Known as Detectamet, these
products are injection
moulded a specially formulated, non-toxic, non-fibrous grade
of polypropylene that has a metal-based additive so that
fragments as small as a 2mm cube (weighing 0.01 g) can be
detected and rejected, depending on the metal detection
equipment used and its operating parameters. Moreover, the
high-impact material is described as 'shatterproof and
virtually unbreakable', which, in itself, helps to reduce
the risk of any fragments entering the food or pharmaceutical
product, and the finished articles are approved for direct food
contact under EU Directive 90/128/EEC rules from the FDA
(the USA Food and Drug Administration). Detectamet
products are available in red, green and
yellow in addition to the standard
blue.
The most popular product developed
so far is Detectamet pens. These are available as a stick
design or retractable, with a choice of four colours for
the pen and three colours of ink. Clips are reinforced to
reduce the chance of them becoming detached, and the stick pen
can be supplied without a clip if preferred.
Numerous other Detectamet products
have also been developed, usually in conjunction with a
customer following a specific request. Examples of
Detectamet products include a stylus for use with PDAs (personal
digital assistants), scoops, scrapers, stirrers, shovels,
buckets, cutters, knives, cups, clipboards, sticking
plasters (dressings), earplugs and vinyl gloves. For
machinery and process applications, there are Detectamet
rubber sheeting, rubber extrusions, O-ring seals, belting,
suction cups, retaining clips and cable ties. In addition,
test sticks, pucks and balls are available for verifying the
correct operation of metal detectors.
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