Good afternoon. We are updating our dress code policy and are having a bit of a debate in regards to food safety vs. personnel safety.
We package dry, Non-RTE grains.
Our facility gets to around 55 degrees F in the winter time, so it's too cold to leave our employees with minimal clothing. We have discussed the idea of wearing lab coats over warmer clothes, however, we have a concern of the coats getting caught in some of the conveyors. We have operators that move around within the production area and it seems like a safety hazard with the possibility of a longer lab coat getting hooked on something or caught in a conveyor.
Has anyone else addressed the potential hazard of this occurrence? It seems like the typical food processing facility uses these lab coats as standard dress code, however, I am curious to know of anyone's experience or analysis of the safety hazard that this may bring to employees working around conveyors.
Thanks