Extending the production time - IFSQN (2024)

We are frozen raw dough products (bread, rolls etc.) manufacturer. Currently we run 5 days a week three shift operations and on the weekend maintenance and sanitation activities are done. We are looking into extending the production time to utilize the line capacity but to what extent we can run without compromising with food safety and sanitation requirements. How can we ensure that food safety will not be affected if we go for longer production run (e.g. 10 days).

Has anyone come across a similar situation? Appreciate your comments.

Thank you!

It is risk based. Your EMP program will also reveal how effective your sanitation practice is.

Will you still be doing daily pre-ops? If all GMPs are followed properly, I don't think you should experience great differences in 5 days vs 10 days.

Some maintenance can be scheduled, some as needed.

It is risk based. Your EMP program will also reveal how effective your sanitation practice is.

Will you still be doing daily pre-ops? If all GMPs are followed properly, I don't think you should experience great differences in 5 days vs 10 days.

Some maintenance can be scheduled, some as needed.

Thanks kconf! we do one preop check at start of the week before production starts and after sanitation. However, at the beginning of each shift operational checks are done (similar to pre-op). I don't see any GMP issue but seeing lot of flour will be depositing on the line and floor, I am little concerned. We will be doing risk assessment and EMP verification out of scheduled one.

I guess you'd be okay to run for as long as the first batch of ingredients are allowed to sit on the line, since there will be some mixing of raw materials between the days You would have to assume that on day 10, there is still some material left on the line that is from day 1 without a sanitation occurring between the lines.

Man, hard to say without knowing all the details of an operation, but I think I would start with a harder study of your 5-day cycle. I would designate areas for a daily swab-a-thon and some daily product sampling from your normal Monday through Friday, test them for the parameters of your program, and see if there is a trend in results from day 1 to day 5. I would want to do this for maybe 3 separate weeks. If you can extrapolate any rise from day 1 to day 5 would still be within your established parameters by day 10, I'd say it could be worth a 10-day test run.

I think you should loop in your sanitation and maintenance guys: will a 10-day run cause a buildup of materials that they can't get clean in a normal cleaning period? Does maintenance foresee increased workload from letting the equipment run for double the current length of time? You can review their logs for the past few months to see how often they overrun their allotted times for cleaning (delayed startups) or how often you're suffering from maintenance downtime.

I'll admit I've never run in a plant with such a long cycle, and I'd be concerned about having to hold 10 days worth of product if the final day of production found an issue that causes a hold. Or god forbid a recall happens on a product produced on day 10 and you can't justify keeping it contained to that day's production (i.e. an unknown micro issue on day 1 isn't found until day 10). Even 5 days straight on a line would be a long run where I've worked, but I know plants do it successfully. I'm also concerned where you're saying you see a lot of flour buildup in your current operation: letting product accumulate on floors for 5 days is already a bad look, and if it were to extend to 10 days... yikes.

You did not mention flour accumulation in OP. Why does that (on floor) have to wait for 5-10 days?