A guide to ensuring hand-washing best practise at your food production site, covering BRCGS expectations, key points to remember, and a range of helpful solutions.

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of effective and frequent hand-washing, especially in the world of food production.

With poor hand hygiene contributing to the spread of bacteria, viruses, and parasites, it poses a serious threat to the customers buying your product, the reputation of your business, and your chances of securing audit compliance.

With this in mind, we’ve created a guide to ensuring hand-washing best practise at your food factory. The following article provides a closer look at relevant clauses from Version 9 of the BRCGS Global Food Safety Standard. It also highlights products and solutions that could help you to make improvements in each area.

Water Quality (Clause 4.5.1)

Version 9 of the BRCGS Global Food Safety Standard asks that the water used for hand-washing at your food production site is:

  • Supplied in sufficient quantity
  • Potable at point of use (safe for ingestion)
  • Fit for purpose
  • Free from the risk of contamination

According to BRCGS, “the microbiological and chemical quality” of this water should be analysed as required by legislation or at least once a year.

The frequency of your tests may need to be increased depending on the risk levels of your operation. This will relate to factors such as the source of your water, your site’s approach to storage, and the previous results of any testing.

Testing the Water Quality at Your Factory

The A3 System is used throughout the food production industry to test the cleanliness of surfaces and water samples. Traditional ATP tests only detect ATP. However, the A3 system detects all forms of organic residue: ATP + AMP + ADP. This is particularly important when it comes to testing water that has been heated or treated, as ATP may have degraded during these processes.

You could also follow up this step by testing the surfaces at your site with an E. coli and Coliforms Isolation Swab, as E. coli and Coliforms are commonly used as indicator organisms for poor hygiene or water pollution.

Learn more about the A3 System and Hygiene Monitoring
Learn more about testing for E. coli and Coliforms

Staff Facilities (Clauses 4.8.4, 4.8.5 & 8.4.1)

Clauses 4.8.4, 4.8.5, and 8.4.1 cover the expectations surrounding staff facilities at your site. Across all three clauses, hand-washing is a key consideration.

BRCGS asks that “suitable and sufficient hand-washing facilities” shall be provided at:

  • Access points to production areas
  • Appropriate points within production areas
  • A suitable position within your bathrooms
  • The point before entry to high-care areas OR
  • The entry point to high-care areas

It is worth noting that Clause 8.4.1 states that when moving into a high-care area, it is important to establish “a hand-washing routine during the changing procedure to prevent contamination of the clean clothing.”

You will also be required to have facilities available for individuals who are moving between non-product and open product areas.

To secure compliance in this area, the hand-washing facilities listed above will need to possess the following features.

They should offer a sufficient amount of water at the correct temperature, single-use towels or suitably designed and located air driers, a liquid or foam soap, and hands-free taps for improved hygiene. Clauses 4.8.4 and 4.8.5 also state that your hand-washing facilities should feature “advisory signs to prompt hand-washing.”

Improving the Staff Facilities at Your Factory

If your hand-washing facilities are missing the “advisory signs” highlighted by BRCGS or you are concerned about the suitability of any signs currently in place, this could be a quick win in regards to driving standards and impressing your auditors.

The right signs will encourage your team to take hand-washing seriously, especially if they feature helpful information such as step-by-step instructions, a suggested time for each hand-wash, and accompanying images that reinforce key points or highlight the dangers of poor hand-hygiene.

At Klipspringer, we specialise in Visual Management Solutions, and have helped thousands of food production sites find the right signs for them. Along with our standard boards, we also produce bespoke signs that can be customised with your choice of imagery and messaging.

Another area to explore is our recently expanded range of Food Factory Mirrors. As with our signs, these mirrors can be customised with bespoke imagery and messaging. They are often used as dress boards in changing rooms or found in food factory bathrooms.

Learn more about our Visual Management Solutions
Learn more about our Customised Food Factory Mirrors

Personal Hygiene (Clause 7.2.1 & 7.2.2)

Clause 7.2.1 asks that the requirements for personal hygiene at your food factory are “documented and communicated to all personnel.”

This should cover everything from the length of your team’s fingernails to the prohibition of excessive perfumes and aftershaves. The clause also asks that each requirement is checked on a routine basis.

When carrying out these checks, you will need to review the frequency and effectiveness of hand-washing at your site. Clause 7.2.2 states that “hand-washing shall be performed on entry to production areas and at a frequency that is appropriate to minimise the risk of product contamination.” An auditor may ask you to justify any decisions made in relation to the frequency and method of hand-washing.

Improving Personal Hygiene at Your Site

The A3 System can be used for more than just testing your surfaces and water samples. It can also be used to test the amount of organic residue on a pair of hands before and after washing.

The results generated by this piece of equipment will help your food factory to establish the best approach to hand-washing, as you can use the A3 system to decide on essential factors such as time, technique, and cleaning products.

With the A3 system capable of providing results in around 10 seconds, you will also be able to carry out on-the-spot checks that reinforce key training messages. Instead of just telling your operatives how important it is to follow the recommended procedure, you can conduct training sessions that will clearly6 show the importance of maintaining best practise.

Learn more about the A3 System and Hygiene Monitoring

That brings us to the end of our guide to ensuring hand-washing best practise at your food factory. We hope it has given you a better idea of how to secure audit compliance in this area.

If you have any questions relating to hand-hygiene at your site or the solutions mentioned throughout this article, our in-house team of experts are here to help.

You can contact them directly on 01473461800 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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