There is no one alive who hasn’t encountered stone, wood, insects, plastic or metal in their food. Unwanted items in food are referred to as foreign bodies. Usually, foreign bodies are just annoying however they can sometimes also pose a huge health risk to certain individuals. In commercial environments, foreign body issues in food could threaten a company’s reputation and ensure financial consequences.
What is foreign body?
Foreign body refers to any filthy, putrid, or decomposed substances that may be hazardous or cause illness or injury to the consumer, for example, insects, excreta, or related adulterants. You can inhale or swallow a foreign body or you may get one from an injury to almost any part of your body. Foreign bodies are more common in small children, who often stick things in their mouths, ears, and noses.
Foreign bodies may get into the food products at any point between the growth of the raw materials and consumption. However, the consumers’ home is another common source of foreign bodies. Foreign bodies in food remain a significant risk to consumers’ health and a company’s reputation as they can be difficult to detect.
What are the hazards related to food? The 4 Types of Hazards
- Biological hazards include bacterium, parasites, fungi and viruses. The main sources of biological contamination are from people involved in food preparation and inadequate storage facilities.
- Chemical hazards are harmful substances such as pesticides or machine oils. Sometimes raw materials coming into the kitchen are already contaminated due to misuse of chemicals during the production or postharvest of food products.
- Physical hazards are objects which contaminate your foods e.g. glass, metal, toothpicks, jewellery or hair.
- Allergenic contamination hazards. Eating an innocent Biriyani can be dangerous for someone who has a nut allergy!
What can cause foreign body contamination?
Frightening Food: the six root causes of foreign body contamination
- Lack of staff training
- Lack of motivation
- No protocols for the use of mobile items
- Improper use of hygiene equipment
- No integrity checks
- No pest control
Consider using this simple four-stage approach to foreign-body prevention and look at how your system can improve.
- Eliminate
- Minimize
- Restrict
- Manage
As suggested by the term “eliminate”, this is an opportunity to prevent a from entering the factory. The next prevention approach is to “minimise” the risk where possible; this could be receiving raw materials in plastic containers instead of glass bottles. If there has been no success in eliminating or minimising the foreign-body risk, we then look to introduce procedures that “restrict” foreign-body hazards from entering some factory areas so that they are away from the open products. Finally, the foreign-body hazards are “managed” using the most appropriate mechanical or manual operation to remove the foreign body during product manufacturing. This is also supported with robust planned preventive maintenance (PPM), an inspection system to ensure the manufacturing equipment is suitable for use daily, and an internal audit program to verify procedures are followed.
