Are roof leaks a minor?

I have been at my new job only a few months and did not deal with roof leaks at my old company. Are roof leaks a minor? What if you have several and by several I mean a lot throughout the facility? 

They need dealt with right now. The issue is that even if you put barrels under to catch drips, it always splashes when it hits and god only knows what 's in the water that is dripping

You need a contractor in to fix the roof ASAP and control measures in place to catch/divert the drips

Alot through the facility means zero maintenance has been done on the building or this would have been repaired when it started..........i can only imagine the condition of the ceiling structure...........gross you've got mold and all sorts of bacteria never mind listeria dripping into your plant

One new leak, not a big deal....patch the roof and carry on.............multiple leaks all over......the building is in a state of disrepair

Roof leaks are a major if located over exposed product or product contact surfaces. If you have a lot throughout your facility, chances are they are near exposed product or product contact surfaces.  Take care of these ASAP and fix the underlying problem. 

Whenever this issue occurs at my plant maintenance will hang a small tarp connected with a fitting to attach a hose from the ceiling. The hose is then connected/secured to the tarp and the hose is ran from the tarp to a bucket on the floor. Obviously not the correct long-term repair needed, but sufficient enough to keep production running and USDA of our backs. Roof leaks are a MAJOR concern due to cross contamination of anything from the roof (bird droppings and that sort of stuff) and should be addressed ASAP 

Dear Laura,

As mentioned above, it's a contamination source and you don't know with what. It needs to be repaired.

You can take a copy of the factory layout and indicate all places of leakage on it during the rain. That makes it easier to locate the leakages when the people are there to fix them. Furthermore it allows you to identify the priority zones.

Kind regards,

Gerard Heerkens

The Peanut Corporation of America is out of business and some of upper management is in jail because they had a roof leak over a machine.  The water collected on top of the machine and Salmonella starting growing in the pooled water.  As more water dripped onto the machine, the contaminated water got into the peanuts.

The company decided to ship contaminated peanuts before they were tested for bacterial contamination.  It caused a lot of their customers to recall products, killed 9 people and over 700 people got food poisoning.

Per Wikipedia:  "This contamination triggered the most extensive food recall in U.S. history up to that time, involving 46 states, more than 360 companies, and more than 3,900 different products manufactured using PCA ingredients."

So yes, I would consider it a major nonconformance if there are leaks in any manufacturing, staging or storage areas.

I have been at my new job only a few months and did not deal with roof leaks at my old company. Are roof leaks a minor? What if you have several and by several I mean a lot throughout the facility? 

Hi LauraIsaiah,

Roof leaks are a major source of pathogen contamination. To put it plainly bird crap etc. is being washed into your facility.

The extent of the problem relates to the area of the leak and the product risk.

GFSI benchmarked standards and laws have introduced environmental controls and monitoring which aim to reduce the risk of product contamination from the environment. IMO if you have a leaking roof it is impossible to maintain a satisfactory environment in that area.

In fact, I have previously immediately refused to approve a Milk Powder Supplier during the site tour at a start of an audit because of a hole in the roof of the Spray Dryer/Bagging Building.

Kind regards,

Tony

To add to Mr. Wallace's tarp story above:

As with ALL temporary repairs, it should be tagged and dated with a start date, expected completion date, work order number, and 'owner' of the repair. Ideally, it should have two tags: one from the maintenance dept and one from the Food Safety Team.

CMHeywood ​ has explained this perfectly.

Also, as well as a plan to repair the areas I strongly suggest a plan for AWE (adverse water incidents) where the leak is risk assessed according to location (eg. non manufacturing areas, over finished product etc.) product put on hold & pathogen swabs carried out as appropriate.

If senior management think you're overreacting suggest you do some entero/coli swabs under recent leaks, show them the results & tell them about peanut corporation of USA.  Casually mentioning  Stewart Parnell's 28 year jail sentence (ok so it was for a lot more than negligence & failure to fix leaks, but I have found that does tend to focus people's attention on the seriousness of water leaks!) 

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