From accessibility to scalability, discover five colour-coding details that are commonly overlooked in the food production industry.

Colour-coding is used throughout the food production industry to drive standards of efficiency, food safety, and audit compliance.

Food factories rely on colour-coded equipment and storage solutions (shadow boards) to reinforce segregation between different zones and applications – reducing the risks of cross-contamination and making it easier for teams to get the job done.

Despite being a well-established organisational tool, there are still areas of colour-coding that are commonly overlooked. The following article covers five of the most important, addressing everything from accessibility to future planning.

1. Accessibility & Inclusive Design

Colour-coded equipment is a great way to improve accessibility, acting as a visual tool for operatives who are new to your factory, don’t have English as their first language, or have processing difficulties like dyslexia. However, all too often, the challenges faced by colour-blind team members are overlooked – making life harder for these individuals and increasing the chances of a hazardous equipment mix-up. When establishing or updating your site’s policy, it’s important to remember that certain colour combinations will be difficult, if not impossible, for colour-blind operatives to register (e.g. red and green or purple and blue).

2. Future Planning & Potential Growth

How easy/difficult would it be to expand your colour-coding policy? This is particularly important if your site is likely to take on new products, ingredients, and allergens in the near future.

An overly complex policy could make this process extremely difficult, as you will be left with limited colour options for any new zones or applications.

You also run the risk of your operatives becoming confused and either abandoning the policy completely or making honest mistakes as they try their best to follow it.

Drawing on over two decades of experience in the food production industry, Klipspringer Director Alex Carlyon has produced a guide to simplifying colour-coding policies. In this guide, he states that “Policies are often overcomplicated by excessive compartmentalisation. Instead, sites should be focusing on the biggest dangers to product integrity.”

Read Alex's guide to simplifying your colour-coding policy

3. The Availability of Colour-Coded Utensils

How easy will it be to re-order equipment in the right colours? Say there is only limited stock available or your equipment provider is unreliable, you could be forced to compromise on either the colour or style of your utensils. You could even be forced to rework your colour-coding policy entirely. To help our customers avoid this issue, Klipspringer holds 0.5 million items in stock, with 2500 equipment options, and up to 11 distinct colours to choose from. As a result, the sites we work with have easy access to the colours and styles they need, and can confidently look beyond the standard food factory options to greys, pinks, purples ect…

View our complete range of colour-coded equipment

4. The Colour of Your Products & Ingredients

What colour are the ingredients and products handled in each zone? Often, factories will use blue equipment for food contact applications, red equipment for cleaning applications, and black equipment for cleaning drains. However, there are no fixed rules across the industry and colour choices will vary. For example, if your factory handles blueberries, blue production equipment would be a risky choice. Instead of copying other sites, it’s important to first consider the dominant colours that appear throughout your production process. You should then opt for equipment in colours that are most likely to stand out if a utensil or even a smaller part makes its way into the product.

5. Ongoing Training & Visual Management

Even the best colour-coding policy is only as good as the team members putting it into action. That is why you need to ensure any messaging related to colour-coding and segregation is reinforced with the ongoing training of your operatives. Make sure to explain the ‘Why?’ behind the policy, covering everything from the time and hassle it will save each team to the impact it could have on food safety and audit compliance. Another important point is Visual Management, as the right signs and SOP boards will help to keep colour-coding at the forefront of everyone’s mind, as will colour-coded equipment storage.

Learn more about Visual Management Solutions
Discover the benefits of colour-coded equipment storage

So there you have it, five details that are commonly overlooked when it comes to colour-coding and segregation within the food production industry. Even if you already had several of these factors on your radar, we hope this guide has highlighted some new areas to consider.

If you would like to learn more about any of the products or solutions mentioned throughout this article, we would be happy to provide further guidance and resources.

You can contact us on 01473461800 or sales@klipspringer.com. Alternatively, you can share your details via the form below and we will be in touch. 

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