Regulation 6 – Facilities on Food Premises (30 min)
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5 thoughts on “Regulation 6 – Facilities on Food Premises (30 min)”
Hello,
I’m guessing the answer is yes. I intend on selling burgers at food markets. I would for example cut-up the trimmings such as lettuce, tomatoe, onion and cheese at home. It will be stored after in seperate containers. I’m pressuming that the surface where i do the cutting should be a stainless steal cutting board that is sanitized and then needs to be tested with micro-swabbing?
I will only braai the pattie and assemble the burger onsite at the market on a table. Perhaps this table needs a micro-swabbing as well?
The recommended cutting boards are normally plastic or stainless steel. It is very important to keep all food contact surfaces clean and sanitised, including cutting boards before and after use. It is recommended to use different colour-coded cutting boards for different products, for example, a board for raw meat, and a board for fresh produce.
Regulations R638 does not require you to do micro-testing, but an inspector can take swabs from surfaces for testing. With that said other standards or your customers can require you to do microbial testing. It all depends on the food products. This is normally more relevant, but not limited, to the food manufacturing industry. Although it is an excellent option if your budget allows you to test your facility occasionally for the presence of possible micro-organisms.
Safety cleaning gloves will protect the person cleaning the tenderiser. Safety cleaning gloves must be made from food-grade materials and should not pose a risk of contamination to the equipment or any surfaces. Keep in mind the cleaning gloves for butchery equipment should be different from the cleaning gloves used for general cleaning. For example, you cannot use the same pair of cleaning gloves used for cleaning floors, toilets, etc. to clean butchery equipment.
Do you think a micro-swab is necessary for our kitchen as we only bake rusks in it which is a dry product. It gets baked for 25 minutes and then air dried for about 7 hours.
Yes, it is. The regulation requires that food contact surfaces be tested for TMC count. Food Safety standards on the other hand require that your testing schedule be informed by validated and verified risk assessments. So you would need to write factual SOPs that inform what you test for and what you do not test for except if explicitly stated by the regulation.
Perhaps what would be different in this case would be the frequency of testing and organisms you would test for, since the product is low risk. It would most likely be less frequent, and you would only test the product for very few organisms. You would use the product’s final water activity as a motivation. Furthermore, there have been documented instances where Staphylococcus aureus (from food handlers) has contaminated rusks and resulted in food poisoning. So you will be expected to produce lab results proving that there is no contamination since your product involves manual handling.
Hello,
I’m guessing the answer is yes. I intend on selling burgers at food markets. I would for example cut-up the trimmings such as lettuce, tomatoe, onion and cheese at home. It will be stored after in seperate containers. I’m pressuming that the surface where i do the cutting should be a stainless steal cutting board that is sanitized and then needs to be tested with micro-swabbing?
I will only braai the pattie and assemble the burger onsite at the market on a table. Perhaps this table needs a micro-swabbing as well?
Please let me know your thoughts here.
Hi Darren,
The recommended cutting boards are normally plastic or stainless steel. It is very important to keep all food contact surfaces clean and sanitised, including cutting boards before and after use. It is recommended to use different colour-coded cutting boards for different products, for example, a board for raw meat, and a board for fresh produce.
Regulations R638 does not require you to do micro-testing, but an inspector can take swabs from surfaces for testing. With that said other standards or your customers can require you to do microbial testing. It all depends on the food products. This is normally more relevant, but not limited, to the food manufacturing industry. Although it is an excellent option if your budget allows you to test your facility occasionally for the presence of possible micro-organisms.
ASC Consultants
Safety cleaning gloves will protect the person cleaning the tenderiser. Safety cleaning gloves must be made from food-grade materials and should not pose a risk of contamination to the equipment or any surfaces. Keep in mind the cleaning gloves for butchery equipment should be different from the cleaning gloves used for general cleaning. For example, you cannot use the same pair of cleaning gloves used for cleaning floors, toilets, etc. to clean butchery equipment.
Good day MT,
Do you think a micro-swab is necessary for our kitchen as we only bake rusks in it which is a dry product. It gets baked for 25 minutes and then air dried for about 7 hours.
Looking forward to your feedback.
Kind regards
Good day Gerhard,
Yes, it is. The regulation requires that food contact surfaces be tested for TMC count. Food Safety standards on the other hand require that your testing schedule be informed by validated and verified risk assessments. So you would need to write factual SOPs that inform what you test for and what you do not test for except if explicitly stated by the regulation.
Perhaps what would be different in this case would be the frequency of testing and organisms you would test for, since the product is low risk. It would most likely be less frequent, and you would only test the product for very few organisms. You would use the product’s final water activity as a motivation. Furthermore, there have been documented instances where Staphylococcus aureus (from food handlers) has contaminated rusks and resulted in food poisoning. So you will be expected to produce lab results proving that there is no contamination since your product involves manual handling.
I hope this answers your question?
Feel free to seek further clarification.
Kind regards,
MT