Arla Foods Esbjerg Dairy optimizes hygiene practices
"The colour-coded solution is helping us to minimize the risk of
cross contamination and to optimize our hygiene practices, and so
fully supporting our production quality procedures. The result has
been an improvement in cleaning efficiency while the number of
tools needed has been reduced."
Jan Jensen, Production Manager at Esbjerg Dairy.
About Arla Foods Esbjerg Dairy
Arla Foods is one of the largest dairy processing and distribution companies in the world. Their Esbjerg Dairy employs 185 people and specializes in long-life dairy products. The 300 tons of milk delivered each day are the basis for a range of products including sauces, soups, soft-ice mixes and chocolate milk. Annually, the dairy produces 115 million kilos of long-life products.
Challenge
Dairies and the wider food sector are under immense pressure from their customers and the authorities to deliver documented evidence that the highest levels of hygiene and cleanliness are being achieved and maintained on their premises. Arla Foods was seeking ways to continuously improve and document their hygienic cleaning processes in order to maintain the Esbjerg Dairy's ISO 9001 accredited quality management system and deliver to HACCP requirements.
Solution
Arla Foods has implemented Vikan's colour-coded hygiene system in the Esbjerg production facility and using Vikan's free IT-based colour coding service, has divided the facility into visually separated zones based on activity. Each zone has been assigned its own colour of cleaning tools and hanging brackets. The resulting factory map identifies where the brackets are located, and provides a list of the cleaning tools stored there. A copy of the list is stored in the HACCP file and with the procurement team to make reordering easier.
The colour-coding system deployed at Arla Foods Esbjerg Dairy means that yellow cleaning tools are used to clean the external surfaces of equipment; blue to clean the floors and walls; and red are dedicated to internal cleaning of tanks.
