Here at Strip Curtains Direct, we offer a range of Anti-Microbial plastic door curtains which can be used in many different settings - from offices and warehouses to food retail premises. One of the industries where PVC strip curtains are used quite often is the food production industry as standard grade PVC has many features which they find useful - especially for the prevention of cross-contamination. But what is cross-contamination in food production and how can our range of PVC strip curtains help to prevent it?
What is cross-contamination?
Cross-contamination is the name given to the transfer of allergens and other foreign substances from one surface to another due to poor sanitary procedures being followed.
The three most common sources of cross-contamination are:
Cross-contamination in food production is a big issue as it can lead to food poisoning, so businesses who want to be successful have to work hard to ensure this does not happen.
Why is preventing cross-contamination important?
There are four main processes in food production (production, processing, preparation and distribution), and cross-contamination can occur in any of them. Having a strategy for preventing cross-contamination is vital, as is making sure it is strictly adhered to, as this will help prevent any issues from arising or harmful bacteria reaching the final customer
What are the dangers of cross-contamination in food production?
As we have mentioned above, the transfer of allergens and bacteria from one food product to another can be a major threat to human health. In fact, the World Health Organisation, who collect data on food poisoning on a yearly basis, recently reported that around 600 million people fall ill every year due to eating contaminated food, with 420 million people dying as a result. These are quite shocking figures, especially when you realise it is easily preventable.
The easiest way to kill bacteria is to ensure food is cooked and heated properly. However, if this cooked food then comes into contact with raw food, then cross-contamination could occur again. If the ready-cooked food is sold as is, then it won’t undergo another cooking process and so the bacteria will remain there and could cause harm to the customer who purchases it.
There are lots of stages in the food preparation process where cross-contamination can occur, including undercooking of food and storing the food at an incorrect temperature. It is essential for food preparation business owners to know where the risks are and to put steps in place to prevent issues from occurring.
How to prevent cross-contamination
If you want to avoid cross-contamination, there are several steps you can undertake:
As you can see, cross-contamination in the food preparation industry is a big problem, but there are simple steps you can take to ensure you keep the risks to a minimum. Here at Strip Curtains Direct, we work hard to produce solutions to many of the issues that businesses face, such as offering fly screens to prevent flying insects from entering food premises, anti-static curtains for data centres, and a general range of strip curtains to help with energy efficiency.
If you have any questions about our range of plastic door curtains, please contact us on 0333 999 7171 or by email at firstname.lastname@example.org.