Walter Black Foods Ltd.

The Law

We are required by Law to manufacture our products in a safe and hygienic manner. Any person found to be deliberately disregarding this Personal Hygiene Policy shall be subject to disciplinary procedures.

The Process

All staff must be fully compliant and trained in the areas following prior to commencing work at Walter Black Foods Ltd.

The following sections to this form are to identify yourself, your trainer and completion status of various required areas of training.

All persons must wash their hands thoroughly using liquid soap as often as necessary and always:

• Before entering the production area
• After visiting the toilet
• After sneezing / coughing / blowing the nose
• After every meal break
• After handling dirty objects
• After handling items that may have been on the floor
• Before handling different products
• After handling Allergens or Materials containing Allergens

During hand washing, pay particular attention to the nails and fingertips using the nail brushes and liquid soap provided. Always rinse hands thoroughly and dry using the paper towels provided. Paper towels must be carefully placed in the waste bins provided.

A good standard of Personal Hygiene is essential

The Personal Hygiene Rules are listed within the next few steps and must be strictly followed to remove the risk of cross contamination.

Nails must be kept clean and short. Artificial nails and nail varnish is not permitted. If gloves are used, these must also be kept clean and in good condition and must be washed thoroughly to prevent contamination and inspected regularly. Latex gloves are not permitted. We will provide gloves if required.

Walter Black Foods Ltd issues all workers with protective overalls, hats, hair-nets, snoods for beards and moustaches and other safety equipment to carry out their duties. All protective clothing must be worn correctly at all times and you must not enter the production areas unless you are correctly dressed.

The correct dressing procedure is:

• Hair-net and hat first, before you put on your overall. All hair and ears must be properly covered by the hats and hair-nets provided. Hair grips and hair clips must not be used. Snoods to be put on at this stage also if required.
• Overalls should be put on next and must be fully fastened.
• The hoods and sleeves of woolen cardigans or pullovers must be worn inside your overalls.
• Safety footwear must be worn at all times in the production and warehouse areas.
• Personal belongings must not be taken into production areas.
• Protective Clothing is to be removed when going on breaks e.g. canteen, smoking, toilet.

Jewellery is not permitted in the production area with the exception of a plain, metal wedding band or wedding wrist band.

Strong smelling perfume/ aftershave is not permitted within the production areas as this may cause food taints.

Smoking is not permitted anywhere within the building. Smoking is permitted only in the designated area/ shelter out-with the building, close to the staff entrance. Please dispose of cigarette end carefully in the bin provided.

In the event of a wound being sustained, this must be reported to the Supervisor or First- Aider. All sores, wounds, cuts and grazes must be covered by a blue coloured metal detectable waterproof dressing. The issue of these dressings will be recorded and these should be covered with a disposable glove or finger stall. Your name will be recorded onto the dressing for traceability purposes. You must check regularly that the elastoplast is in place and report immediately if it is missing. Any dressing applied outside the factory must be replaced with a factory issued dressing before entering the production area.

Before starting work, you must inform your Manager or Supervisor if you are suffering from Sickness, Diarrhoea, Gastric Upset, Inflammation of the Ears, Eyes, Nose, Throat or Skin conditions caused by Staphylococcal infections. You will be excluded from handling food in these situations. A full list of illness symptoms to look out for will be displayed along side this policy to keep all staff informed.

Eating, drinking and spitting in the Raw Materials Warehouse and Production areas and Toilets is strictly not permitted.

You must not take food into these areas. Eating and drinking is permitted in the Canteen, the Technical Office and the Engineers Seating Area.

We would request that wherever possible, the use of glass packaging for personal food and drink items (eg bottles of juice) is avoided and replaced with plastic.

These should not be brought into the production and warehouse areas as they pose a foreign object risk and are strictly forbidden. These include mobile phones, personal stereo, i-pods, mp3’s, earphones, money and many more.

All staff requiring to take medication onsite should report this to their Manager / Supervisor and it will be kept in the designated locked area of the Managers office or their locker to prevent the risk of product contamination and medication misuse. Workers are not permitted to give medication to fellow staff as some people have an intolerance to some medication and some medication may cause drowsiness etc. Anyone feeling ill should report to their Manager / Supervisor for advice.

We are a peanut and nut free site.

You must not bring nuts, nut oils or nut derivatives/nut products onsite.

If you are in any doubt, please contact the Technical Department for advice. There will be random checks carried out in all canteens by the Technical Department to ensure these rules are being followed and lockers will be checked on a random basis to ensure Rules are followed.

Walter Black Foods Ltd is a nut free site.

The factory is managed to eliminate the risk of nut and serious allergen contamination.

Personnel, Visitors and Contractors are not permitted to bring any nut or nut products on site.

Contractors must be alerted to the fact that we do not permit nuts and nut products to be brought on site.

The following 3 sections cover allergens and the handling of them.

Please read each section carefully and once confident mark the section as complete.

A document containing all the information you are reading, completing and agreeing to will be sent to you via email

PLEASE ENSURE THAT THE CORRECT COLOURED EQUIPMENT IS USED AT ALL TIMES.

IF IN DOUBT PLEASE ASK A SUPERVISOR, THE PRODUCTION MANAGER OR A MEMBER OF THE TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT.

ALLERGENS

Allergens naturally present in some foods may cause a number of allergic reactions in sensitive individuals, ranging from mild discomfort to severe anaphylactic responses, which could be fatal. The allergens present at Walter Black foods Ltd are:

Our Glasgow site makes products that are Plant Based and Suitable for a Vegan Diet and these do not contain any animal or animal derivative content.

Be Aware:

There are a small number of Raw Materials on site that are not suitable for use in Plant Based and Vegan Products. It is important that we have strict controls in place to prevent contamination from these materials to the Plant Based and Vegan products.

Materials we have onsite that are NOT SUITABLE:

The following controls are in place:

• Any changes to raw materials or suppliers of ingredients used in Plant Based and Vegan products must be approved by Technical Staff prior to their use.
• Any changes to the production process, the HACCP Team must be notified before going into routine production.

The person responsible for the above is the Technical Manager

• Acceptance of raw materials and GRI trace codes applied at receipt in Raw Material Warehouse.
• Details of segregated or dedicated storage facilities for allergens are in place

The person(s) responsible for the above are the Raw Material Warehouse Operators.

• Recipes that are Vegan/Plant Based approved have to be programmed in to allow efficient cleaning
• A daily review of the program by Technical Staff highlights additional cleaning for Plant Based /Vegan production
• Allergen swabbing in use to verify cleaning after the use of Allergens / Animal derived Ingredients
• Random Hygiene swabbing carried out to verify cleaning

The person(s) responsible for the above are the Technical Department Staff

• Recipes are produced in the most efficient order for making and filling on line
• Additional cleaning time for line changes/kitchen production
• Spillages of Non Plant Based and Non Vegan materials must be cleaned up immediately using the allergen kit

The person(s) responsible for the above are the Planning Department Staff and Production Management Team

Where rework of Plant Based / Vegan product is required, it shall be:

• Plant Based / Vegan back into same Plant Based / Vegan Product
• Or as a completely new production batch

The person(s) responsible for the above are the Technical Department Staff and the Production Management Team

• Procedure and Controls in place for label approval
• Product specifications are up to date and online to ensure correct use of packaging and coding etc.

The person(s) responsible for the above are the Technical Department Staff and the Production Management Team.

• There are details of segregated or dedicated storage facilities for Plant Based/Vegan products in scope
• In the Finished Goods Warehouse, there is a quantity of non manufactured item, Beef Dripping. The Beef Dripping is bought in and sold on. It is wrapped and enclosed while being stored in the warehouse. While on site, the product must not be unwrapped to expose the contents. Staff have been made aware of this requirement.

The person(s) responsible for the above are the Warehouse Manager and Staff.

Environmental Swabbing and Product Testing is set up to provide evidence that our cleaning process is effective.

The person(s) responsible for the above are the Technical Department.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT WE FOLLOW ALL THE CONTROLS SET UP TO PREVENT CONTAMINATION TO PLANT BASED / VEGAN PRODUCTS

Please note that a completed copy of this from will be sent to Walter Black, Allstaff and yourself.