Worker’s Shoes and Your Food: The Heavy Cost of Food Recalls
Food recalls can have devastating effects not only on consumers, but on companies as well.
In 2019, there were 97 Class one food recalls. These recalls added up to hundreds of thousands of pounds of contaminated food being pulled off the shelves. The average food recall costs a company $10-$30 million.
The million-dollar question is, how can these food recalls be prevented? And the answer always comes back to proper sanitation.
A large portion of food contamination comes from bacteria finding its way into food. Salmonella, E. coli, and listeria monocytogenes are three of the biggest culprits.
These bacteria cause food poisoning which can result in serious illness or even death.
To prevent the spread of these bacteria, it’s imperative companies practice proper food preparation protocols and sanitation. The frustrating reality is, many companies do a great job of this but still find that bacteria make their way into their food and suffer massive recalls as a result.
That’s because sometimes separating food groups and washing hands and cooking surfaces isn’t enough. Science says bacteria could be slipping into your food preparation area another way: on the soles of workers shoes.
Facility workers padding in and out of a food preparation area can track tons of dangerous bacteria with them. In fact, a single pair of shoes can contain 421,000 units of bacteria. Even a quick trip to the bathroom while preparing food is dangerous. You’re sure to wash your hands thoroughly, but fecal matter from the floor still ends up on your shoes, in fact research showed that 96% of shoes had fecal bacteria on them.
The scary truth is, with every step you take, you’re transferring bacteria from your shoes to the floor and vice versa. These bacteria are multiplying by the minute and can end up in the millions within just 7 hours eventually becoming airborne and finding their way into your food products.
So how do you make sure your employee’s shoes don’t inadvertently end up costing your company millions of dollars from food recalls? The answer is simple, proactive shoe disinfection protocols.
Add The UVZone Shoe Sanitizing Stations To High Risk Areas
Your boots are made for walking, not for transmitting deadly pathogens.
Our UVZone Shoe Sanitizing Station is designed to kill bacteria in seconds and it kills E. coli in just 8 seconds. Your average floor disinfectants or bleach sanitizing shoe mats alter the DNA of the bacteria, but still allow for regeneration. The combination of Ozone + UVC light in our shoe sanitizing station denatures the bacteria’s DNA and limits regeneration for reliable and consistent disinfection results.
The station is also simple and easy to use. It requires no staff monitoring, provides 24/7 disinfection, plugs into a standard outlet and works right out of the box. It can also be relocated to control the spread from one area to the other during outbreaks.
Protect your perimeter and critical high risk areas within your facility, start today by scheduling a free virtual demo of our shoe sanitizing station.
