Tag Archives: footwear

New Year, New Sanitation Program

Achieve an effective sanitation program in your facility with footwear and surface sanitation products! In the food production process, cross-contamination can occur at any point. Employees can track in a myriad of potential contaminants and unknowingly put an operation at risk each time they breeze through a doorway to a production area. Having an effective sanitation program in place that addresses employee hygiene is key.

A primary route of contamination is the bottom of people’s shoes, so cleaning footwear has become just as important as washing hands when coming into a facility. “Items which contact the floor are contaminated and could serve as vectors; despite daily cleaning of high-touch surfaces such as floors, it has already been shown that bacterial and viral contamination return rather quickly” (Pyrek, 2018, pp. 1). To help combat this issue, Nelson-Jameson carries several options for minimizing contamination from footwear including: Boot Scrubbers, Doorway Foamers, and Disinfectant Mats. These products are designed to be located at entryways of facilities to remind employees to clean and sanitize their shoes upon entry.

Cleaning and sanitizing surfaces is also an integral part of a sanitation program. Having the correct sanitizers for your processing facility can prevent the spread of microorganisms that cause foodborne illness. At Nelson-Jameson we have a full line of Alpet® Sanitizers that are both food contact and non-food contact approved for your facility.

Overall, this program is designed to aid in preparing your facility to be sanitized, but you can’t sanitize without cleaning first. It’s apparent that many individuals interchangeably use the terms cleaning and sanitizing, when in fact they are different. Cleaning is described as the physical removal of visible dirt, soil, food particles, grease, or allergens from equipment, utensils, or work surfaces. On the other hand, sanitizing reduces the number of harmful microorganisms from a cleaned surface. Cleaning must always come before sanitizing. If cleaning is skipped, the sanitizing process will be ineffective as oil, grease, and dust deactivate sanitizers. While these products are not guaranteed to remove all bacteria, they do bring the amount down to a safe level.

Start preparing your processing facility today—request or download our updated 12-page Footwear & Surface Sanitation Flyer. It contains an array of products to help make protecting your facility and products easier!

Sources:

Pyrek, K. M. (2018, October 31). Shoe Sole and Floor Contamination: A New Consideration in the Environmental Hygiene Challenge for Hospitals. Infection Control Today.      https://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/view/shoe-sole-and-floor-contamination-new-consideration-environmental-hygiene.

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Tech Tip: A Step in the Right Direction

FootwearCollageAt Nelson-Jameson, we often get questions from customers asking about how to find the right size when ordering boots for female employees. For those not familiar, industrial/work boots are generally sold only in men’s sizes. Hence, things can start off on the wrong foot for buyers hoping to find their employees the right footwear.

Though some variance does occur among manufacturers and among different kinds of footwear styles, a general rule to consider is:“ women can find the right boot by subtracting two.” For example, a U.S. Women’s 8 generally converts to a U.S. Men’s 6. In our experience, this works well for ordering both boots and inserts.

If you have any questions though, don’t hesitate to call us and we’ll “walk” you through the process to help you find the perfect pair of boots for you or your employees! To see our complete collection of footwear, click here.

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These Boots are Made for…Preventing Slippin’

Safety really is job number one. From protecting our employees to protecting our customers, the food industry does so much to assure the welfare of all involved, from the farm to the table. As safety goes though, there is always room for improvement and innovation to combat accidents of all kinds. On the production side, you may be surprised to find out a very simple safety concern is still one of the top threats to worker safety: slips, trips, and falls. The United States Department of Labor cites slips, trips, and falls as the cause of “the majority of general industry accidents,” accounting for “15% of all accidental deaths,” and overall, generally: “are second only to motor vehicles as a cause of fatalities.”

As slips, trips, and falls continue to be a major issue both inside and outside of food industry operations, any complete operational safety survey should include a look down at the floor. What kinds of hazards might there be, and what  kind of footwear is being worn? As part of a larger safety program, the use of slip-resistant boots can protect workers in slippery environments.

Depending on the producer, foot protection materials and designs can differ, and the choices may, at first, seem overwhelming. The footwear may be composed of certain materials like Neoprene. rubber, etc. They also might feature different kinds of slip-resistant designs or technologies, including Safety-Loc, Neo-Grip, etc. To learn more about these different terms, check out our “Safety and Personnel Terminology” page. For information on protecting your employees on the floor, check out OSHA’s website concerning “Walking/Working Surfaces”. Though impossible to completely prevent all slips, trips, and falls, it is possible to enact preventative measures, like requiring proper footwear, that can significantly reduce the possibility of this all-too-common workplace injury.

If you need help choosing the correct boot for your floor surface or potential hazard, feel free to contact Carol Blakey, Safety & Personnel Products Manager at 800-826-8302.

For more information on our footwear selection, click here.

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