Aluminum Flakes from Bakery Racks & Pans
Hi everyone,
I am wondering if anyone has any experience with aluminum flakes from aluminum bakery racks and pans.
We make RTE snack products and our racks do NOT go in an oven but our pans do (for the sole purpose of toasting ingredients for aesthetic reasons rather than food safety reasons). We have SOPs in place so the production and packaging teams know to load a rack from the top down and to unload a rack from the top up. However, we are still experiencing very small flakes of the aluminum falling onto the top of our product.
This just came up yesterday and I have not had a chance to go on the floor and do an audit; I had suggested there may be team members not loading/unloading racks properly but our Ops Mgr expressed confidence this was not the case. I do plan to do a walk around over the next couple of days but would appreciate your input in the mean time.
We clean all of our racks at least once per week and our pans more often (neither are food contact surfaces as we use parchment pan liners every time we use the pans). The flakes are too small to be considered a choking hazard but we've found them in-house prior to packaging and shipment and have also heard from 2 customers over the past month that they've found them. We have been able to address the customer issues with success but this is still a concern for us.
In trying to find a solution, we found shelf covers online but they are expensive and seem like they would create a larger hazard from a standing water/mold/etc. point of view.
Please, does anyone have any experience with dealing with this? If so, how did you solve your problem? I let Management know that it might come down to the man hours spent to clean all of the racks multiple times per week which wasn't a very popular idea but, hey, I didn't take this job to make friends, right? :whistle:
Thanks in advance!
~Emily~
Hi Emily
It is very difficult to "see" the problem without being there. Are the flakes actual metal filings (as in a tray grinding across stainless steel), or are the flakes white?
- If metal filings - perhaps line the rack slides with a thin strip of teflon material - similar material to bread board - so that the tray has something to slide on instead of the harder stainless steel.
- If white flakes - that indicates to me that the aluminium is reacting to a caustic cleaning chemical.
Good luck.
Hi Emily
It is very difficult to "see" the problem without being there. Are the flakes actual metal filings (as in a tray grinding across stainless steel), or are the flakes white?
- If metal filings - perhaps line the rack slides with a thin strip of teflon material - similar material to bread board - so that the tray has something to slide on instead of the harder stainless steel.
- If white flakes - that indicates to me that the aluminium is reacting to a caustic cleaning chemical.
Good luck.
Hi Steve,
Thank you for your feedback. I've confirmed these are actual aluminum flakes (silver, not white). Both our racks and our pans are aluminum so no stainless steel involved.
Our team has discussed covers for the racks, both a tube-like cover that slides onto the rack shelves and a tape-like cover. Both ideas have been rejected due to concerns of standing water, mold and the like developing in the tube-like covers and tears in the tape-like covers which just add the foreign body material back into the mix.
If we're not willing to cover either the racks or the pans with something to keep the aluminum-on-aluminum wear to a minimum, I cannot think of an option other than increased frequency of wipe downs/washing the racks.
I am definitely open to any additional ideas you or anyone else has but I worry that we've painted ourselves into a corner on this one.
Continued thanks,
~Emily~
Hi Emily,
Did you ever figure out a solution to this issue? We are having the same problem with our bakery racks!
Hi AJ,
Change to (appropriate Grade) SS ? or is there a weight handling / heat transmission issue ?
Are there Grades of Al like SS ? SS-314 can be food disaster compared to 316 but depending on the application.
Hi AJ,
We do not have the budget to buy new equipment so we took steps to reinforce the importance of racking and un-racking our trays correctly. I started conducting more frequent audits and discussing this with the supervisors, impressing upon them the message that they and their teams are the line of defense against customer complaints or, worse, choking hazards. We also started having the team kind of carry the tray into the rack, supporting it on the bottom while they guide the tray as far onto the rack as they can before they set it on the rails and push it in. Some employees are able to "carry" the tray all the way into its spot so their trays are simply set in place; other employees have a shorter reach so they have to slide the tray maybe half the way. Either way, it's still less of the aluminum-on-aluminum scraping.
We haven't had a customer complaint or internal finding for at least 3 months, now, and I owe it to my team for staying so alert and engaged during their shifts.
Hope this helps!
~Emily~
Thanks, Emily! I suppose everything always comes back to proper training and enforcement!
Thanks, Emily! I suppose everything always comes back to proper training and enforcement!
And Resources perhaps. (= moolah).
We think we have come up with a fix for the aluminum flakes (bakery rack erosion). We applied 2" Slick Strip tape UHMW Polyethylene to the shelf edges. Pans slide much more easily and no aluminum dust! Best source we've found is Acrotech (www.acrotechinc.com). Sept 2019 price $75 for a 2" wide, 10 mil thick, 36 yards long, part #SST1002. We tried some thicker Slick Tape from ePlastics, which was a bit easier to work with, but cost much more. We are now using the tape on all bakery and fudge racks and the staff loves it.
Attached Files
Hi kalleao.
I downloaded the catalog ( >pg 18).
I do not see any specific mention of product being "foodsafe" or suitable for food use/contact. ?
TBH, the problem appeared to be more a result of handling and/ or inferior equipment.
Thanks anyway.
With regard to UHMW (ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene) ....here are the material characteristics (see link). The material has FDA, USDA approval for food processing parts. If we are splitting hairs, no, this particular manufacturer (Acrotech) has not sought approval for this use. My guess is that the UHMW producers are not aware of this potential use. On the other hand, there is no food contact in this application.
We took the recommendation of khalleao and ordered the slick strips from EPlastics. We were so excited to find a solution to the flaking issue between the pans and oven racks, but they don't work. The strips don't stay adhesive because of the heat from the ovens. How did you deal with this problem? Would love any advise or help to solve this problem.
We took the recommendation of khalleao and ordered the slick strips from EPlastics. We were so excited to find a solution to the flaking issue between the pans and oven racks, but they don't work. The strips don't stay adhesive because of the heat from the ovens. How did you deal with this problem? Would love any advise or help to solve this problem.
Thks for comments.
Hopefully will get a response.
For nbmamos:
This thread originated as a discussion about racks that DO NOT go into ovens. Sorry...I don't have any experience with an oven-safe solution.
Hi all, just stumbled upon this thread. We have the same problem too. Our products (very low risk) are sliced and baked on the aluminum pans in the rotating rack ovens. Pans are loaded into the racks from top to bottom and unloaded from bottom to top, we still get a few slices with 1 small fleck on each of them almost daily (these are rejected by our metal detector, critical limits are Ferrous - 0.8 mm; Non Ferrous - 0.8 mm; Stainless Steel - 1.2 mm), but no customer complaints so far. Our pans and racks are cleaned bi-annually (scrubbed with soap and water using scrubbing pads and then dried in oven); increasing cleaning frequency is not possible at the moment as we run 7 days a week and do not have enough people to do this (we also have A LOT of racks and pans). Would love to see if anyone has a solution to this. :smile:
Hi all, just stumbled upon this thread. We have the same problem too. Our products (very low risk) are sliced and baked on the aluminum pans in the rotating rack ovens. Pans are loaded into the racks from top to bottom and unloaded from bottom to top, we still get a few slices with 1 small fleck on each of them almost daily (these are rejected by our metal detector, critical limits are Ferrous - 0.8 mm; Non Ferrous - 0.8 mm; Stainless Steel - 1.2 mm), but no customer complaints so far. Our pans and racks are cleaned bi-annually (scrubbed with soap and water using scrubbing pads and then dried in oven); increasing cleaning frequency is not possible at the moment as we run 7 days a week and do not have enough people to do this (we also have A LOT of racks and pans). Would love to see if anyone has a solution to this. :smile:
Hi cchu,
I am the author of the original post; I've been separated from both that company and the food industry since 2016...BUT!! I can tell you that several people recommended strips to be placed on the racks themselves; since your racks are in the oven, I don't know if heat-safe strips are available.
With our team, we ended up training people to rack the trays by lifting them as far into the rack as possible before setting them on the rack shelves. Again, I have zero idea how feasible this would be given the high temperatures your team members face in the oven.
Other than 1) ensuring you're racking and unracking in the proper order, 2) your metal detector is in place and is calibrated / checked regularly, and 3) you check out the high-temp strips to put on the racking to reduce the metal-on-metal friction and / or train your team members to scrape the trays along the racks as little as possible, I've never been able to brainstorm additional solutions.
I wish you so much luck on solving this issue; hopefully you can take a kernel from what you've read in the thread or my reply here and create an amazing solution for yourself. :smarty:
:off_topic:
Hello to all my old friends here; I hope you all are doing well and are staying safe and healthy. As soon as my kiddo is back in school, I'll be trying to find a job working with food in the cannabis industry :potplant: here in Michigan - keep your fingers crossed for me and take care, everyone! Happy New Year!! :rock:
Hi cchu,
I am the author of the original post; I've been separated from both that company and the food industry since 2016...BUT!! I can tell you that several people recommended strips to be placed on the racks themselves; since your racks are in the oven, I don't know if heat-safe strips are available.
With our team, we ended up training people to rack the trays by lifting them as far into the rack as possible before setting them on the rack shelves. Again, I have zero idea how feasible this would be given the high temperatures your team members face in the oven.
Other than 1) ensuring you're racking and unracking in the proper order, 2) your metal detector is in place and is calibrated / checked regularly, and 3) you check out the high-temp strips to put on the racking to reduce the metal-on-metal friction and / or train your team members to scrape the trays along the racks as little as possible, I've never been able to brainstorm additional solutions.
I wish you so much luck on solving this issue; hopefully you can take a kernel from what you've read in the thread or my reply here and create an amazing solution for yourself. :smarty:
:off_topic:
Hello to all my old friends here; I hope you all are doing well and are staying safe and healthy. As soon as my kiddo is back in school, I'll be trying to find a job working with food in the cannabis industry :potplant: here in Michigan - keep your fingers crossed for me and take care, everyone! Happy New Year!! :rock:
Hi tygrress,
Thks for input.
Best Wishes to you and "kiddo" !
I have used UHMW block cut to size and riveted on to solve this issue. It's a semi permanent fix (the rivets could be cut and replaced) The strips go on the sides and bottom of the slide rails and you'll never have this problem again
I don't know about this particular manufacturer, but here's a link to the material
Hi!
This was an interesting read for me.
Just starting doing some work on our HACCP plan at the bakery and am excited because they are letting me bake :shades:
I think it's so great when a company will allow the quality to get involved with the process so we can really learn about what is going on.
It was actually the process worker who pointed out to me little flecks of metal in the products! eeek!!!
I need to know more, but I think the baking trays go through our dishwasher which has chlorine in it.
Can this be contributing to the wear and tear? It seems like the wear and tear comes from the top of the pans and also from the sliding (I'll look into silicone).
But this issue must be widespread with aluminum trays in bakery, surely?
Anyone else got some tips on managing?
Currently no metal detector in place at the bakery, but the baked products are added to other lines which do have a metal detection.
:)