A closer look at six of the most common foreign body contaminants in the food production industry, plus expert advice on how to keep them out of your products.

Foreign body contamination can have severe consequences within the food production industry – spreading bacteria, posing a serious choking hazard, and even resulting in internal injuries.

The presence of a foreign body in your product could also cause consumers to lose trust in your brand, leading them to question the cleanliness of your premises and the safety of your product.

The good news is, there are plenty of ways to effectively reduce the risk of foreign body contamination. In the following article you will discover a wide range of solutions, focused on six common contaminants: plastic, glass, metal, stone, packaging, and operator-related materials.

1. Plastic Contaminants

First, you need to assess the suitability of your site’s equipment. Any utensils that come into direct contact with your products and ingredients need to be made from food contact approved materials. Your equipment also needs to be colour-coded, ideally in shades that are easy to spot if any fragments break away e.g. blue or red. Regular integrity checks are also essential, allowing your team to replace damaged or degraded equipment before a foreign body incident occurs. Depending on the specific risk levels at your site, you may decide to carry out these checks before and after every use, so you only ever have one batch to investigate if a part or piece goes missing.

You also need to make sure your team are equipped with the right tools for every application. Otherwise, they are more likely to damage utensils along the way, with brush bristles catching on sharp parts of machinery or plastic handles being grated against rough surfaces. Finding the right detail cleaning equipment for tight spaces and awkward angles will help to reduce these risks.

Read our guide to conducting integrity checks at your site

2. Glass Contaminants

Regular integrity checks are also essential to managing the risks of glass contaminants. This is especially important when it comes to instrumentation like glass probes which are inserted directly into your product. Where possible, you should also minimise the use of glass equipment in high-risk areas of your site, making the switch to safer materials like stainless steel and food contact approved plastic. Additionally, you need to assess and enhance (if possible) your site’s procedure for dealing with broken glass. This will consist of ongoing training sessions, clearly defined Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and dedicated Glass Incident Kits to remove debris.

3. Metal Contaminants

If there is a high risk of metal contaminants entering your product, you will likely have a metal detector on site. Although this is in an effective way to identify large fragments, it’s important to understand that due to the background signal produced by all food products, especially wet items, most metal detectors won’t be sensitive enough to find small parts like springs or shards. Otherwise, they would be triggered by the background signal of the food itself. That is why ‘prevention before detection’ is so essential – opting for pens without metal springs, selecting equipment with the minimum number of parts, and avoiding tools with small components.

Ongoing training is also essential, as it will help you to combat complacency across your workforce. After all, you don’t want your operatives to assume the presence of a metal detector eliminates all risk of metal contaminants. You could then reinforce this training with visual management solutions in high-risk areas or additional notes in your Cleaning Instruction Cards (CICs). Just remember to involve your engineering and maintenance teams in any training, as they will need to be on the lookout for vulnerable parts of machinery during services, inspections, and repairs.

4. Stones

Foreign body contamination can also be caused by stones making their way into you products through raw, agricultural ingredients. To combat this risk, it is essential that all vulnerable ingredients are investigated thoroughly before entering your production line. Some sites will use stainless steel EuroBins with mesh inserts to sieve large amounts in one go. Other solutions include x-ray machines and mechanical sorting. It’s also important that any instances of foreign body detection are reported and documented, as this will allow you to go back to your suppliers and ask them to address their own approach to detection and elimination.

5. Packaging Materials

Packaging Materials like cardboard and paper are also common contaminants. With this in mind, you should evaluate the layout of your food factory, ensuring the assembly and breaking apart of any packaging takes place far away from your product. You should also conduct a review of historic customer complaints related to packaging materials in your finished food item. Say you notice a trend in plastic wrapping being found in your product or a higher number of complaints related to cardboard shavings, this information will help you to decide which aspects of your packaging need to be replaced, potentially with quality alternatives that are less likely to disintegrate.

6. Hair, nails, jewellery

In Issue 9 of the BRCGS Global Food Safety Standard, there are a number of clauses that relate to the personal hygiene standards and protective clothing requirements of teams working across the food production industry. Clause 7.2.1. covers everything from the ban of false nails to restrictions surrounding jewellery, Clause 7.2.3 highlights the importance of using coloured plasters to cover cuts, and Clause 7.4.2 outlines expectations surrounding hair nets and beard snoods. Ensuring compliance in these areas will not only help to impress auditors, it will also reduce the risk of contaminants such as hair, nails, and jewellery ending up in your product.

Ongoing training will encourage your team to take accountability for their own personal hygiene and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), especially if you highlight the potential consequences of a foreign body incident. You can then reinforce these learnings with visual management solutions and even bespoke mirrors in your changing rooms that provide handy dress code reminders.

If you have any questions surrounding the guidance provided in this article, we would be happy to provide further support in relation to foreign body contaminants and the best approach to keeping them out of your product.

You can contact us directly on 01473 461 800 or sales@klipspringer.com. Alternatively, you can fill out the contact form below and one of our friendly team members will be in touch.

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