Sanitary Sluice - The Guardian of Hygiene in Food Processing Plants.

 

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Have you ever wondered about the hygiene maintained in food processing plants? After all, it's from these factories that products reach our tables, which we consume every day. In today's post, we will take a closer look at the mysterious rooms called sanitary sluices, which play a crucial role in maintaining cleanliness in the food industry.

What is a sanitary sluice?

 

A sanitary sluice is a special room through which employees of the food processing plant and suppliers pass when entering the clean zone, where food production takes place. It is located at the boundary of the dirty area (e.g., warehouse, social rooms) and the clean area (production hall, where machinery and equipment for food processing are located). Thanks to sanitary sluices, the risk of transferring contaminants, such as bacteria, viruses, or fungi, to the produced food is minimized.

How does a sanitary sluice work?

 

In the sanitary sluice and potentially preceding staff locker rooms, plant employees must go through several stages to ensure the highest level of hygiene:

1. Removing outer garments: At the very beginning, employees take off their outer clothes and leave them in lockers. Then they put on special protective clothing, which will only be worn in the clean area.
2. Hand washing: Before entering the clean area, employees must thoroughly wash and disinfect their hands using cleaning and disinfecting agents available on site.
3. Dressing: The worker then puts on workwear, intended exclusively for use inside the clean area. This might include aprons, overalls, caps, masks, or disposable gloves.
4. Footwear disinfection: In the sanitary sluice, there is a special device for disinfecting footwear, also called a sanitary or hygienic sluice, which allows for effective removal of contaminants from the soles of shoes and disinfection of work shoes.

After finishing work in the clean area, employees leave it, usually passing through the sanitary sluice in the reverse order, i.e., taking off their workwear, washing their hands, and putting on their outer clothes.

Upon return, a hygiene sluice device is often also used, which in this case serves to clean work shoes from production residues/contaminants.

What is the purpose of the sanitary sluice?

 

The sanitary sluice serves several key functions in food processing plants:

1. Ensuring hygiene: Thanks to sanitary sluices, the risk of transferring contaminants is minimized, which translates into the safety of food produced in the plant.
2. Access control: The sanitary sluice checks whether people entering the clean zone meet the required hygiene standards and also restricts access to unauthorized persons.
3. Maintaining cleanliness: By separating dirty areas from clean areas, sanitary sluices protect production premises from contamination by dust, dirt, or other external factors.
4. Ensuring high-quality products: By maintaining high hygiene standards in the plant, the quality of the produced food is at the highest level, affecting consumers' health.

In addition to the device itself, there are many additional equipment elements in the sluice, among which we can list:

• shoe lockers,
• work shoe dryers,
• benches for staff for changing shoes,
• lockers for storing caps, aprons, and disposable gloves,
• dispensers for disposables,
• stainless steel sinks,
• soap and disinfectant dispensers,
• hand dryers,
• paper towel dispensers,
• trash cans,
• barriers and gates limiting the possibility of bypassing the sluice,
• additional shoe washers,
• and other equipment necessary due to the specifics of a given plant.

 

In conclusion, sanitary sluices are an essential element in food processing plants, ensuring the maintenance of high hygiene and quality standards of produced food items. Thanks to them, when we reach for products on store shelves, we can be sure that they are safe for our health.