MATERIAL SOLUTIONS
Justified quality assurance for allergen removal from workwear
Plenty of food for thought as Richard Neale of LTC Worldwide addresses the disciplines needed to ensure food industry workwear is as allergen-free as the food products produced in factories and professional kitchens
ince the early 2000s, food industry technicians have been getting ever more concerned about allergens in food products and the duty of care they owe to their ultimate customer – the everyday consumer. As their research revealed the danger that even minute amounts of allergens on foodstuffs can have on sensitive adults (and even more so on affected children), precautions in food processing have been escalated. These now extend, quite rightly, to the workwear which they issue to their operatives. Instances of illness and death from the
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unwitting consumption of foodstuffs containing trace amounts of common allergens have made newspaper headlines. In the UK, the workwear garment rental sector has responded with its own research, to produce a sequence of procedures which have been designed to reduce, to a very low level, any risk of potentially harmful allergens contaminating any food industry workwear garment. They have identified a set of marker allergens, which can be quantitatively detected on fabrics and surfaces, and used these to monitor wash process adequacy and the laundry
decontamination performance actually achieved.
The tests used and the frequency with which they are applied are proportionate to the risks addressed, and have produced an integrated and cost-effective scheme, establishing in the process the powerful benefits of a nationwide garment rental programme.
It is noteworthy that this success has been achieved by cooperation between the food processors and garment rental operators, without any legislative interference from government!
ALLERGIC REACTION: the workwear garment rental sector has produced a sequence of procedures which have been designed to reduce, to a very low level, any risk of potentially harmful allergens contaminating any food industry workwear garment
@LCNiMag September 2024 | LCNi 27
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