The impact of factory layout on hygiene in food factories

Poor site and plant layout undermines product safety and creates the potential for product contamination. This chapter discusses important site and plant layout guidelines and details that will help minimize product contamination by rodents, insects, birds, microbes, human, chemical and other environmental factors. It includes basic hygiene guidelines on the layout of grounds, outer perimeter, interior building and manufacturing to minimize product contamination, and also outlines the separation of raw materials, manufacturing process and packaging areas, and the separation of raw material and finished goods storage. In addition, the isolation of chemical storage and waste treatment processes in order to minimize cross contamination potentials is covered. Lastly, guidelines on material movement into and out of the plant, along with human movements within the plant that minimize the potential for product contamination are discussed and basic layout ideas are presented that will help control deliberate human attempts to contaminate product.