Did you know that physical hazards are one of the most widespread reasons for food recalls? Or that numerous emergency room visits are caused by physical hazards in food? From a chicken feather to a metal piece – these items can seriously damage consumer safety. For this reason, it is vital to know about physical hazards and address them in food.
This blog delves into the critical and often overlooked issue of physical hazards in edibles. We will uncover what a physical hazard is, its impact on food safety, its types, and ways to prevent physical hazards from injuring consumers.
What Is a Physical Hazard in Food?
Definifinition of Physical Hazards
Physical hazards are foreign or naturally occurring objects unintentionally put or left in food. For instance, a piece of foil or a bone can be a physical hazard. Physical hazards can contaminate food at any production stage, pose the risk of foodborne illnesses through bodily injury, and undermine consumer safety.
The FDA indicates that physical hazards are sharp foreign objects that can harm or pose choking risks. Damage caused by them can lead to choking or damage to the oral cavity or gastrointestinal tract. Filth and dirt can also be considered a physical hazard in some instances.
What Are the Examples of Physical Hazards in Food?
Physical hazards vary depending on the type and stage of production. For example, a fish bone or scale in seafood or seed in fresh produce processing can be a physical hazard. However, let’s look at some categories and examples of physical hazards.
- Metal hazards – parts of utensils, machinery, and agriculture tags.
- Jewelry – earrings, bracelets, and other accessories.
- Glass – pieces of light bulbs, bottles, and other glass food containers.
- Wood – pieces of wooden pallets and packaging, toothpicks, utensils, etc.
- Plastic and Rubber – plastic packaging and utensils, plastic or rubber wrapping, etc.
- Bones – bones from meat, fish, or seafood.
- Stones or Rocks – stones from fruits and berries, rocks found in grains.
- Pests – insects or their parts, small animals, or droppings.
- Personal Items – things that people unintentionally leave in food, such as hair, artificial nails, jewelry, and parts of clothing.
How Do Physical Hazards Get Into Food?
Physical hazards can appear at different food production and supply chain stages. Let’s look at the primary environments and processes where hazards can occur.
Agriculture
Food products can be contaminated with physical hazards on farms, such as pieces of agriculture tags, equipment, rocks, etc. Improper storage of harvested food can lead to pests that pose contamination risks.
Manufacturing
Food manufacturing and processing can also introduce potential physical hazards. First of all, Any parts of equipment or utensils can get into food. That’s why there should be adequate maintenance management practices to avoid broken or potentially dangerous equipment.
Moreover, food handlers can neglect personal hygiene rules or carry personal items like jewelry, hair, nails, etc, that can fall into food.
Packaging
Food packaging plays a pivotal role in food safety. It is a barrier against food safety hazards, and any inconsistency can cause physical hazards to enter the packaged food. Thus, it is vital to keep track of packaging compliance.
Foodservice Kitchens
The risks of physical food hazards in kitchens are similar to those in manufacturing. Improper handling of equipment and utensils and lack of personal hygiene among food workers can cause contamination by physical hazards.
The Impact of Physical Food Hazards
Physical hazards in food can lead to severe outcomes and put your customers at risk.
Let’s look at the adverse outcomes physical hazards can cause.
Injury: foreign objects can cut a person’s mouth, throat, or intestines.
Foodborne illness: physical hazards can contaminate food and cause foodborne illnesses that can be extremely dangerous to people.
Choking: foreign objects can get stuck in the throat and block the airway.
Recalls: when food is affected by a hazard, a manufacturer or distributor can recall it. The FDA can also request a recall. When the issue is resolved, the food can be returned to the market.
Money losses: costly recalls, withdrawals from the market, and corrective actions can cause extra expenses and lead to financial losses.
Legal issues: in the worst-case scenario, a customer who suffered from your product can sue you, possibly leading to business closure.
Loss of customers: once consumers find something in your product that doesn’t belong there, they will lose trust and boycott your product. Recently, I noticed a piece of foil in my drink. Do I ever want to buy this drink again? To be honest, not really.
As you can see, various possible outcomes of physical hazard contamination range from minor to life-threatening. That’s why it’s better to monitor and prevent potential issues than to deal with them when they happen.
What Can My Team and I Do To Prevent Physical Hazards in Food?
Preventive measures can significantly reduce the level of physical hazard occurrence. These can include risk assessment, monitoring procedures, or implementation of a food safety plan.
Here are the practices that will help mitigate physical contamination risks:
Write and Implement a Food Safety Management Plan.
HACCP will become a game changer for your food safety. You will optimize hazard analysis and monitoring in a facility. A complex approach, including prerequisite programs, will contribute to food safety. Monitor CCPs according to your HACCP plan to identify where potential hazards can appear.
Strict Quality Control
Quality control and assurance will allow you to maintain food quality and safety without the presence of any physical hazards.
Incorporate Risk Assessment Strategies
Food safety risk assessment will help analyze and predict potential physical hazards in food and help omit any severe mistakes.
Maintenance Management
Equipment failures often cause physical hazards. Better maintenance of food manufacturing equipment and machines will lower the probability of breakdown and contamination.
Use Equipment To Control Hazards
Install additional equipment to find and catch hazards. X-rays, magnets, or metal detectors will help identify and eliminate potential physical hazards in food.
Repair or Take Away Potentially Hazardous Objects
Repair or replace broken equipment, utensils, lightbulbs, etc. Decide if you have any elements like loose curtains and replace them. In other words, tackle all your problems that could become physical hazards.
Incorporate Good Manufacturing Practices
Understanding and following GMP guidelines will help improve product quality and safety. Consider the main GMP principles and components to eliminate food contamination risks efficiently.
Educate Food Workers
Educate and encourage food handlers on food safety principles. As a result, they will adhere to cleanliness principles, not allowing jewelry or other personal items to get into food. They will also know how to prevent physical contamination from different sources. Educating your staff on food safety practices is critical for a positive food safety culture in your food production business.
Proper monitoring and preventive measures are vital for omitting and tackling physical food hazards. A digital solution can also automate and facilitate monitoring procedures, making physical hazards more manageable.
What if a Physical Hazard Has Already Gotten Into Food?
If a food handler notices a physical hazard, they must remove it from the food as soon as possible using the appropriate corrective action.
The foreign material must then be appropriately disposed of, the incident must be documented, and the remaining food product may have to be reworked or discarded. Remember to inspect other batches for the same contaminant.
Reporting an incident is the next step. Let your manager and important departments know.
Most importantly, keep the product from leaving the kitchen or facility.
After the incident, continuous improvement is vital to prevent similar situations. Use the experience to analyze the mistakes, improve the processes, and mitigate the risks in the future.
Don’t hesitate to take care of food traceability. This is an indispensable element of food safety. Even if food safety hazards have got into food, you can “catch” it in your supply chain and significantly alleviate the recall impact on your production.
How Can Food Businesses Digitize Physical Hazard Monitoring?
Hazard monitoring can be a time-consuming and intricate task. Human-made mistakes are highly probable and can affect food safety operations.
However, modern technology is well-developed, and you can easily incorporate a digital solution to automate your food safety operations and boost hazard monitoring processes.
FoodReady is an all-in-one solution with features like a HACCP plan builder, CCP monitoring, reporting and analytics, document management, etc. The platform will enable food and beverage companies to effortlessly monitor, analyze, identify, and tackle physical hazards in adherence to the latest food safety regulations.
If you are still unsure, book a demo and ask our team any questions you have!
Conclusion
Physical hazards in food can harm people’s lives and the reputation of food manufacturers. Stones, plastic, jewelry, metal flakes, screws, and other hazards can result from irresponsibility or unintentional mistake.
Therefore, implementing the best food safety practices, such as a food safety plan, quality control, maintenance management, employee training, etc., is a win-win situation for a food business owner. You improve the quality of your product and keep your consumers safe. If you do not have a system in place to control your physical hazards, you may have adverse outcomes, such as contamination, foodborne illnesses, recalls, legal issues, loss of brand integrity, and more.
If you are a food manufacturer looking for a solution to handle physical hazards, implement software that will digitize food safety compliance, automate your operations, boost monitoring procedures, and help handle risks and hazards properly. Conscientiousness in your work and modern evidence-based approaches will help you minimize food safety hazards in your products.
FAQs
Yes, they can. Natural physical hazards include bones in seafood and stones in fruits and berries.
The food products that undergo more processes have more chances to include physical hazards.
Unfortunately no. However, we can significantly reduce the number of cases with strict quality control, preventive measures, technological advancements, etc.
State authorities and regulatory bodies announce the recalled products and their reasons. The FDA provides more information about recalls, market withdrawals, and safety alerts.