A comprehensive guide to conducting an Integrity Check of the equipment and instrumentation at your food factory.

Regular Integrity Checks of your equipment and instrumentation will help your site to:

  • Reduce the risk of foreign body or food safety incidents - protecting consumers
  • Avoid costly product recalls - protecting customer relationships and brand reputation
  • Avoid non-conformities and secure audit compliance

The following Help Guide will take you through the process of conducting an Integrity Check at your Food Production Site. You can also read the following articles on:

Knowing when to replace your Hygiene Equipment
Knowing when to replace your Production Equipment

Why are Integrity Checks so important?

As mentioned above, Integrity Checks help to protect both your business and the wellbeing of your consumers. Say a brush has reached the end of its lifespan and is no longer fit for use, failing to identify this issue could result in bristle clumps entering into your product. You will then be met with consumer complaints and a potential product recall.

Or, imagine if your operatives are continuing to use a damaged probe thermometer. In addition to water ingress, this damage could also result in a bacteria harbourage point – compromising every product that comes into contact with the ‘unacceptable’ instrument.

Another important example is a glass electrode. Just think of the potential consequences of glass shards finding their way into your product.

Even the best equipment and instrumentation has a lifespan, which is why it’s important to manage these risks is through regular and thorough Integrity Checks.

How do you conduct an Integrity Check?

It is important to carry out an Integrity Check of your equipment before and after every use. This will reduce the risk of your product being exposed to damaged or broken utensils that have loose components or bacteria harbourage points that wouldn’t be present if everything was in tact. What’s more, if the damage is spotted after use, your team will have a better idea of which batch(es) have been compromised. Instead of holding back product unnecessarily or risking a recall, you will be able to conduct a targeted investigation of the products that have passed through a specific process or area since the last Integrity Check.

When conducting an Integrity Check, your team will need to be on the look out for:

  • Broken or loose parts
  • Broken or loose bristles
  • Missing parts or pieces
  • Cracks and cavities
  • Dents and damage

They will also need to ascertain how well the equipment has been cleaned, as it should be free from any build-up of residue.

Ideally, each Integrity Check will be recorded, especially if you are responding to a previous non-conformity or a customer complaint.

Your team will only be able to do this if they understand the difference between equipment that is in an ‘acceptable’ and ‘unacceptable’ condition. You can achieve this goal through the ongoing training of your operatives and the introduction of visual management tools. It should also be site policy to photograph any ‘unacceptable’ equipment before it is disposed of. These photos will prove invaluable when it comes to spreading awareness across your team.

If an Integrity Check highlights ‘unacceptable’ or defective equipment, the item will need to be removed from use immediately. A step-by-step guide for this process should be covered in your site’s policies and procedures.

Integrity Checks: Expert Advice

“If you believe your product has been compromised by a foreign body that has potentially broken into smaller parts, one option is to weigh an intact version of the suspected foreign body.

For example, if your site uses ‘O-Rings’ and you are faced with an incident where parts have ended up in your product, the first step could be to weigh an intact ‘O-Ring’.

Then, if you weigh any broken pieces found inside the compromised batch, you will know to keep going until the two weights correspond. Depending on the circumstances and risk level, this could potentially save your site from a costly product recall.”

– Former Head of Technical for a leading Food Manufacturing Site

Auditing and Integrity Checks

As mentioned above, it is advised to document your Integrity Checks wherever possible. At the very least, you should be documenting the training you have given on conducting Integrity Checks. You should also document spot checks of equipment, along with any Visual Inspections carried out by supervisors, internal auditors, or your site’s HACCP team.

Documentation is so important because it helps to prove you are doing your due-diligence when it comes to preventing foreign body or food safety incidents.

If your auditor notices a piece of equipment that is unfit for use, one of the first things they will ask for is evidence of a safe and effective approach to equipment management. If you are unable to provide the proof they need, a non-conformity could be raised against your site.

If your site is audited against BRCGS, you will then have 28 days to resolve this issue – carrying out a root cause analysis, re-establishing and potentially modifying your current process, and compiling evidence that the same problem won’t happen again.

Evidence of your Integrity Checks will also help you to resolve customer complaints.

Additional Points to Consider

1. Cleaning Instruction Cards

Alongside Integrity Checks of your equipment and instrumentation, you will also need to evaluate your site’s Cleaning Instruction Cards (CICs), so you can assess the suitability of the equipment you are using for each application.

Otherwise, it is possible that even if your operatives are using ‘acceptable’ equipment in perfect condition, a foreign body or food safety incident could occur.

For example, the bristles of a brush could catch on a sharp internal piece of machinery or a floor squeegee could be worn down by an extremely rough surface.

As you work through this process, think about the likelihood and risk level of each potential incident, then make sure your team is using the best equipment for the job and the relevant preventative measures are in place.

2. Digital Quality Management

If you are concerned about employee engagement surrounding Integrity Checks, especially when it comes to consistently checking equipment before and after each use, you may want to consider the benefits of a Digital Quality Management System.

The right system will simplify and speed-up the process of recording Integrity Checks. Instead of relying on paper checklists, your team can simply tick a digital check box and the information will be automatically recorded on your site’s dedicated platform.

This information will be essential if your factory is faced with a customer complaint or an auditing question related to equipment management. You can also take preventative action if you notice certain operatives or teams aren’t being consistent with their checks.

What’s more, if an incident occurs or an ‘unacceptable’ piece of equipment is identified by a Visual Inspection or spot check, you will have a list of the operatives that judged the utensil to be ‘acceptable’ and will know which team members need to be re-trained.

Learn more about Digital Quality Management Systems

That concludes our Help Guide to conducting an Integrity Check at your Food Production Site. Even the best equipment won’t last forever, so it’s important that you and your team know the warning signs to look out for, along with the potential consequences of ignoring damage and degradation.

For additional support, contact our team of advisors on 01473 461800 or sales@klipspringer.com. Alternatively, you can share your details using the contact form below. 

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