Noon International: Food Trading Import Export

With all the China food bashing I feel it is appropriate to give some in sight into the frozen food factories in China. How do they operate? I will only be speaking for factories that I have visited while on my trips to China. Hygiene is of utmost importance in food factories in China and this is evidenced because of the presence of the Japanese, who are paranoid about their food, whom are the natural trading partners for China because of the proximity. I always find it amazing that if a new concept is introduced by the Japanese to a factory, how quickly it spreads to the other factories in China, its like Divine Intervention.

First of all workers (and guest) must change cloths into smocks or something similar. They then have to change shoes and put on rubber boots. Now most of the factories require that the workers use a protective sock over their sock to avoid contamination, this is relatively new and something that most all factories are doing now. Then they will be required to put on a hair net, a cap and a mask to prevent spreading of germs. After they are changed and ready to go into the factory they must wash there hands, dip their hands in a strong disinfectant and wash again. They also have toothbrushes to scrub under the fingernails. Then the workers must queue up and are individually inspected to make sure their clothing is correct, all hair is under the hair net, mask are on correctly, and not wearing any jewelry or other items that could potential get into the food. In one factory I visited they had this gestapo lady checking each persons fingernails and if they were too long then clip clip, just mabye the next time your looking for a free manicure go visit a China food factory. From here they have to enter a foot bath to disinfect the boots and then usually go thru a dark corridor because the insects don’t like to enter thru the dark and then finally into the factory. Upon entering the factory the hands are sprayed with an alcohol solution again. Once in the factory they are permitted only in the particular area they are working in.

Some factories go to extremes monitoring there employees. I remember once seeing a cartoon showing a man coming out of the restroom and the alarm going off making an announcement, DID NOT WASH HANDS. I have actually seen in one China factory the equivalent of this with the restroom being glassed instead of a wall so the workers could be monitored to make sure they washed their hands. I am sure that in the future they will develop some electronic monitoring to make the announcement DID NOT WASH HANDS (how cool would that be?).

The end result is that one element of the freezing process, the workers, are well monitored and inspected to avoid any contamination from germs, colds, hair etc.

As we have mentioned in the past the important thing is to know from whom you are buying. We at Noon International are constantly visiting and monitoring the factories we work with to make sure they are meeting the standards of our customers, Although this is only one aspect of the factory it is important to understand that controls are in place for monitoring the workers. The other elements raw materials, sanitization of the factory, control check points etc we will discuss at a later time.

Technorati Tags: noon international, china food bashing, frozen food factory, sanitization, wash hands

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