GlassGuard, European manufacturer of fragment retention lamps, has appealed for food manufacturers to be vigilant with their building fabric and glass audit conformities and to recognise the need for safer lighting following the publication of a British Retail Consortium (BRC) report which presents the top 10 non-conformity groups across food manufacturing sites.
‘Food Safety – A Global View’ published by the BRC sets out key findings and an analysis from their 2012 audits of over 16,000 food manufacturing sites across 113 countries. It highlights important learnings on food safety issues that affect manufacturers, retailers and consumers the world over.
For the report, the BRC analysed 6,500 sampled audits and presented the top 10 non-conformity groups. Hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) is identified as the highest non-conformity group.
However, it is the appearance of ‘building fabric’ and ‘glass, brittle and ceramics’ in the list of top offenders which causes concern for GlassGuard.
Stewart Damonsing of GlassGuard warns that food manufacturers should not overlook their lighting when addressing building fabric and glass requirements as stipulated by Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) recognised schemes such as BRC Global Standards for Food.
BRC Global Standards for Food (Version 6) in particular states:
“bulbs and strip lights – including those on electric fly-killer devices – should be adequately protected” – Section 4.4 (Building fabric)
“glass and similar breakable materials must be managed to ensure they do not break and contaminate food products” – Section 4.9 (Glass, brittle plastic, ceramics)
Stewart says, “Some manufacturers may overlook their lighting as it is normally fixed at height and out of reach or it is behind a diffuser cover. Unfortunately the use of diffuser covers on a strip light does not constitute adequate protection as there is still an element of risk of accidental breakage, particularly when a light bulb or fluorescent tube is being replaced. The most adequate protection is a fragment retention lamp as it will retain all the broken pieces of glass safely within its coating.”
GlassGuard has been advocating safer lighting to the food processing and packaging industry for over 20 years.
Fragment retention lamps, such as the GlassGuard BlackBand, are lamps treated with a technologically advanced coating, manufactured to EN 61549. The lamps, in the event of accidental breakage, will retain all of the broken glass safely, thus protecting and providing a safe lighting solution in food production environments.
