Shoe sanitizing - IFSQN (2025)

In my plant i am improving shoe sanitizing facility at the workers entrance area

We have used foot baths in the past - a tray with a foam mat soaked in sanitiser solution. They need to be well managed and the sanitiser changed regularly or they represent a contamination risk.

I have also seen factories with boot washes -
http://www.meritech..../mbw2/index.php

Regards,

Tony

It definitely depends on what type of factory you work in. Because I work at a flour mill, we don´t have shoe sanitizing with "wading pools" like you might see in a meat company. Uniform shoes are to be worn only inside the premises, and we do have a mat with sanitizer at the entrance.

Hi All,
I work in a milk factory and we do the same - uniform shoes and sanitizer for the shoes at the entrance of the working area. The litter with the sanitizer has to be cleaned properly to prevent contamination.

Attached Files

• Operational_Sanitizer_Monitoring_Log__1_31_09_.doc 71.5KB415 downloads

Good Afternoon All,

In our meat processing facility, we utilize foot sbaths witha scrub broom to scrub boots in the finshed goods/packaging areas. The boots are to be kept inside the facility and cleaned daily. Each time an associate enters the room they must walk throught the foot bath. When they exit the room at the end of the day, theymust scrub the boots after walking throught the foot bath. They then walk to the emplyoee locker area to the cahgne shoes to go home.

We also have a sanitizer strength form which I have encluded to verify the strength at minimum three times per production shift.

I hope this help out.

Rey Avendano

Can i ask, do you swab your boot washer for listeria, and do you ever find anything?

Caz x

• I have seen in meat industry gumboots are provided while entering to the process hall. Before entrance to hall foot bath is necessary.
• I have also seen a whey protein manufacturing factory. The kind of system they were following, I have never seen again in any of the factory..
  There was a long carpet (around 8-10 meter long); water was running from process hall entrance toward the exit of the factory. First step was to properly wash face, hands and foot before entering. Even if you are not intended to go inside the processing area and just wanted to visit any of the office. Everyone has to enter bare foot. If going inside they will provide the gumboots. Walk thru this wet carpet, where chlorinated water is flowing continuously and finally with dry carpet (at least 2 meter long) and enter the processing area.

Definitely risk factor has to be considered first. Based on that shoe sanitization and it's frequency to be determined.

Views are welcome if any one has seen such type of system.

Regards

Wow Saviour! This almost sounds like a religious cleansing before entering the premises. On the other hand, washing your face before entering does sound like something that should be done, since that is where a lot of germs come from (mucous membranes).
On the other hand, washing my feet and walking barefoot even if I´m only going to the offices? ( Yikes! I have trouble walking barefoot in airports, when you have to put your shoes into the Xray machine. I usually take a pair of socks for this. ) What if someone has foot fungus? Even if they wash their feet, the fungus is still gonna go all over the carpet! Or maybe I´m just foot shy.
And what happens after you wash your feet? I would guess that you´d have to wash your hands all over again. Or is it: wash face, feet and then hands?
A lady who worked in a microbiology lab, pharmaceutics I think, had to take a shower before and after entering the lab. She said most people skipped their noon meal because it was such a hassle to shower so many times a day.

Can i ask, do you swab your boot washer for listeria, and do you ever find anything?

Caz x

Caz,

we use footbaths in both low and high care areas, the footbath in low risk is always full of Listeria as would be expected from raw meat areas.

Caz,

we use footbaths in both low and high care areas, the footbath in low risk is always full of Listeria as would be expected from raw meat areas.

So

Hi Jarve

Good to see someone who does swab their footbaths!

So how do you manage Listeria there then?
Is it only for washing boots coming out, and a different washer for going in?
I'm intrigued, can't be easy i know

Caz x

Thanks all for your input.

What do you think Abdul?

Regards,
Simon

I never expected too much valuable responses, i appreciated everyone in the forum for helping each other.
I have improved shoe sole sanitizer facility up to some extent. Similar to http://www.patentsto...ts/6146588.html

Totally seperate footwear for high and low areas, staff are not allowed to remove wellingtons from low care changing room, it is a disciplinary offence to be wearing wellingtons outside of production areas.
We do occasionally get Listeria in the high care area, but a thorough clean usually does the job, the biggest problem is controlling engineers roaming the factory at weekends after all the equiopment has been cleaned on Friday night.

Jully,
its bad practice to move outside the factory in high care wellies. With listeria you should always try to minimize the chances of getting the bug in high care, cause its difficult to get rid of it. Therefore, even if you use shoe sanitisers etc it would help to limit any movement with highcare wellies outside high care.
If someone from high care has work to do in a "dirty" area then he should change overalls and wellies
I typically swab wellies and the shoe sanitiser for listeria.

It depends on how the plant is structured... I've seen plants were in order for someone to go to the toilet or company's restaurant they had to remove their work overalls and wellies.
If that is not possible then you should try to do the best with the resources you have in order to avoid contamination (i.e. on top of the working overalls you can also wear disposable aprons, disposable sleeves, that people will remove once they get out of high care and use new ones when they go back inside etc). Its not the ultimate solution but it in my experience helps.
I do not allow food in changing areas, its considered a disciplinary offence. If you have a restaurant in-house then the employees can store their food in fridges there
As far as the shoe sanitisers are concerned, if you work with high risk products (i.e. ready to eat & perishable products) IMO its a must.

We make Dry pet food that lasts that has a shelf life of 12 months, so it is not high risk products. I would try to implement the idea of changing the overalls before and after entering the high risk areas. As it involves investment and other few things, it would take a while but I will keep informed when done with it.

Thanks Snitze for the help.

Specially in dry mixes food production area sanitation and cleaning is very important, as it involves investment and other few things you can go for disposables which is more economical and as said by Snitzel, shoe covers, disposable coveralls, face-masks, gloves & hair-nets are common practices used all over the world.

Perform internally swab tests weekly / monthly as per requirement (depends upon size of employees & batches) and call third party (external microbiology lab) half-yearly / yearly to collect swabs for verification purposes.

What about bakeries that are all low moisture and have no dairy or egg?

What possible purpose would sanitizing personal shoes (that are worn in from the outside) serve if the employee is more than likely to step in mineral oil, floor sweepings, random dirt, etc, during the course of the day?

Shoes will always be well below any product zones, and I don't see the general production employee jumping up and down with significant vigor to pass on any contamination.

Any walkovers above open product areas are already enclosed up to knee level.

It just seems to me that you are introducing more issues by requiring boot dips than not.

Anyone BRC certified in a totally low moisture bakery that requires boot dips?

Marshall

Good Afternoon All,

In our meat processing facility, we utilize foot sbaths witha scrub broom to scrub boots in the finshed goods/packaging areas. The boots are to be kept inside the facility and cleaned daily. Each time an associate enters the room they must walk throught the foot bath. When they exit the room at the end of the day, theymust scrub the boots after walking throught the foot bath. They then walk to the emplyoee locker area to the cahgne shoes to go home.

We also have a sanitizer strength form which I have encluded to verify the strength at minimum three times per production shift.

I hope this help out.

Rey Avendano

HI Rey

the "three times verification" is per SQF ?

I am also looking for a solution over this same question, so I could find a simple structure. It was a carpet made of rubber. Inside cavity has a mat soaked with sanitizing liquid. Everybody entering into the production floor is supposed to walk on it, so sanitizer is in contact with shoe sole. Definitely this mat will be replaced frequently to avoid cross contamination, however i think this will work.

Are there anybody having this experience or compatible sanitizing chemical? A chemical that is not vaporizing quickly, but disinfect properly is in concern.

What about bakeries that are all low moisture and have no dairy or egg?

What possible purpose would sanitizing personal shoes (that are worn in from the outside) serve if the employee is more than likely to step in mineral oil, floor sweepings, random dirt, etc, during the course of the day?

Shoes will always be well below any product zones, and I don't see the general production employee jumping up and down with significant vigor to pass on any contamination.

Any walkovers above open product areas are already enclosed up to knee level.

It just seems to me that you are introducing more issues by requiring boot dips than not.

Anyone BRC certified in a totally low moisture bakery that requires boot dips?

Marshall

I don't know exactly what type of bakery you are at, but here might be some ways your product might get contaminated by bacteria from the floor:

- Picking items up from the floor with gloves, trash or a dropped box etc, and using that same glove to continue working with product

- Dropping packaging material onto the floor but picking it up and continuing to touch product while packing.

- buckets of rework sitting on the floor, picked up and dumped into bowls, bottom of buckets touched with gloves but gloves not changed and touching dough

- touching cleaning equipment that was used by those who clean around the facility and pick things up off the floor etc.

These are behaviors that are obviously not tolerated, but that can happen when you are not looking.

At the facility I am currently at, we use Sterilex Ultra Powder in foot bath mats instead of liquid. It is approved by the EPA to kill Listeria and it is safe around food. Some places distribute it across the facility floor, but it is expensive so we don't do that. It is a dry powder, not slippery at all, and we have it at the employee entrance.

The main goal is to keep Listeria out of the facility. Your facility may be low risk if you have a good kill step and there is no chance of contamination after, so you may not need it.

I know I am reviving a very old post, but would you mind sharing how much the Sterilex powder costs? I reached out to Sterilex for a quote, and they have not responded.