SQF 11.2.5.7 - Sanitary Facilities and Employee Amenities in Pre-Operational Inspection

Hello!

 

I work for a company that manufactures frozen pizzas. We are not SQF certified- I am shooting for next year for our first audit. We are currently certified through the GFSI Global Markets Programme. 

 

I have been working on our pre-operational inspection checklist. Per SQF 11.2.5.7, both employee amenities and sanitary facilities are to be included in pre-operational inspections before production starts. As of right now, I have our pre-op checklist set up to where each piece of equipment, product contact surface, utensils used for production, etc. are inspected and checked off with a time/initial of inspector, and once all pre-op inspections are cleared, a manager must initial and time when production is cleared to start (to verify that it is all done before we run the first pizzas). If any piece of equipment or product contact surface is not sufficiently cleaned, it is re-cleaned and re-sanitized as needed before it can be signed off for production. We do not have a cleaning crew- it is our machine operators (who are the inspectors) and line workers that clean the production room at the end of the shift.

 

My question is: if bathrooms/breakroom is included on on our pre-op, does that mean if they aren't sufficiently clean we have to hold off production until it is all re-cleaned? We have one employee who does most of the cleaning in the building excluding the production room, and he takes care of the bathrooms. He tends to come in after production starts, so then we would need to have un-trained employees cleaning bathrooms and then going on to production, which would make no sense at all. It also doesn't seem logical to hold up production because the bathrooms, which are a warehouse away, might be a little dirty.

 

Obviously the bathrooms are kept pretty clean, they are cleaned daily. But in the event that they are not cleaned to standards for whatever reason, I need to know how I can manage, to not hold up production because of this. Anybody have any advice? I have searched the forum but not found anything regarding this issue.

 

Thanks,

 

Rick

Remove them from your production pre-op

 

The facilities and lunchroom should be maintained and documented separately from production

Scampi,

 

Thanks for the reply! I shall remove them from my production pre-op. But why does SQF says specifically that employee amenities and sanitary facilities should be included in the pre-op? Wouldn't I then get a non-compliance if I remove it from my pre-op? I am looking at 11.2.5.7.

 

Thanks,

I would just make sure someone is verifying the cleaning of the bathrooms and break room and documented verification of their cleanliness.  As Scampi said, separate from your Pre-Op of production.  Should be enough to show that everything is ok.  The wording in the part of the code can be confusing...it says inspections should be done after cleaning to ensure those areas are clean for the start of production.  Thus I feel as long as you have documented verification of the cleaning of the bathrooms and break room, you are showing that you are ensuring that area has been adequately cleaned.

Scampi,

 

Thanks for the reply! I shall remove them from my production pre-op. But why does SQF says specifically that employee amenities and sanitary facilities should be included in the pre-op? Wouldn't I then get a non-compliance if I remove it from my pre-op? I am looking at 11.2.5.7.

 

Thanks,

See also 11.2.5.8---you cannot view each element in a silo or you will handcuff yourself and your program

 

11.2.5.8 Staff amenities, sanitary facilities, and other essential areas shall be inspected by qualified personnel at a defined frequency to ensure the areas are clean.