[Special Report: Food Plant Hygiene] Decontaminating Foot Traffic

According to the USDA, “Listeria monocytogenes may enter a food processing environment through incoming food materials and on the shoes and clothing of personnel. Once L. monocytogenes is in a food processing environment, it may become established on food contact surfaces and non-food contact surfaces (e.g. floors and floor drains).”   

You can have a multi-page food-safety program that covers all your processes and that you review regularly with all employees, but if it does not include a comprehensive method of foot-traffic decontamination prior to entrance, you can be introducing microorganisms faster than you can fight against them.

While plants generally do have some sort of program — protective boots, foam, foot-bath mats, etc., managers may want to take a look at actual employee — and visitor — practices as to how these are really being used.

“A lot of people use the door mats and expect people to stand in or walk through them,” said Michele Colbert, director of sales for Meritech. “But typically, people will step over them, particularly say you’re touring a plant and have on street shoes.” This stepping over is sometimes a result of a desire to protect the shoes, and sometimes simply a lack of knowledge. If the foam is not explained to the non-employee, he or she may not realize that stepping into the foam is part of the plant’s food-safety process. In addition, a small mat won’t provide protection for equipment traffic coming through the entrance.

Colbert recommends that plants ensure that the entire entryway contains the sanitizer, in such a manner that it cannot be stepped over or around. However, if your plant does not require that all visitors wear plant-issued boots, the sanitizer should also be kept fairly shallow to accommodate those in street shoes. 

Such practices should be maintained at all entrances, even those used only by employees and even if your employees wear plant-issued boots. Chances are the boots were probably not sanitized after the last use, Colbert said, and even if they were sanitized immediately, “bacteria grow on things very quickly,” she said.

Another option for boots are rotating brushes through which employees walk to clean and sanitize boots as they enter the area. Such equipment most often is seen in meat plants with raw and ready-to-eat product areas, where heavy-duty scrubbing is typical. “I see a huge increase in that,” Colbert said. “The increase in demand for heavier duty boot scrubbing has really come to a head.”

In discussing the sanitation needs at entryways, she said, “We haven’t even touched on different areas of plants and having sanitizer in between.” This is critical for avoidance of cross contamination of allergens, raw to ready-to-eat meats, etc. “You have to set up a clean room in between,” she said.

Many plants also are going to complete color-coding, she adds, using specific colors for each area, blue for raw meats, green for ready-to-eat and red for allergens, and using this coding for everything, including sanitizing equipment. “You need to really keep it segmented because that cross contamination can be deadly.” 

Lisa Lupo is staff editor of QA magazine.