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Food safety risks don’t just come from pathogens and adulteration — even the weather and changing seasons can impact food and beverage manufacturing conditions. Summer especially can pose considerable food safety challenges (even for the most controlled environments). It’s critical for manufacturers and distributors alike to develop and implement an effective summer food safety response plan to protect public health — and their operational integrity.
Summer Food Safety Tips for Navigating Today’s Challenges
Across every region of the U.S., warmer summer months create a number of environmental conditions and hazards that can undermine food safety protocols in surprising ways. Stakeholders need to be prepared to quickly respond to:
Extreme Weather Events and Natural Disasters
The Challenge: Weather patterns during the summer are becoming increasingly extreme, with heat waves expected to become more prevalent, intense, and long lasting. In fact, the Council on Foreign Relations declared that 2023 brought the most extreme summer weather yet. These climate conditions are also increasing the prevalence of natural disasters like wildfires, tornadoes, and hurricanes.
Every one of these events could not only disrupt the supply chain and normal production and distribution schedules, but also affect adherence to food safety programs. Mitigating disruption is as important to protecting public health as it is to maintaining revenue and profitability.
The Solution: Stakeholders at processing plants as well as manufacturing and distribution facilities need to develop a detailed crisis management plan to protect their operation from disruption. The plan should encompass all potential hazards and risks stemming from the various types of extreme weather events and scenarios that can happen during summer months, and outline controls to mitigate each of the risks.
Pro Tip: Take a course in crisis management planning to learn best practices for mitigation.
Humidity Control
The Challenge: In regions with high humidity, even normal increases in temperature during the summer season could increase the risk of condensation developing on cold surfaces, as well as facilitating mold growth. If condensation goes unnoticed and drips onto food, it could contaminate the product with bacteria, foreign objects, or other pathogens and create a food safety issue. Moisture buildup and high humidity can also create conditions for mold growth under surfaces and throughout facilities.
The Solution: High humidity areas may require air conditioning as a dehumidifying strategy to protect the processing environment, even if the temperature itself is not an issue. Increased air flow can help minimize the formation of condensation. Stakeholders should take special care to maintain and clean air handling equipment to ensure that air intake filters are properly seated, and ductwork is free of excess moisture to prevent contributing to mold issues in the plant.
Refrigeration Breakdown
The Challenge: High temperatures during summer months also add urgency to maintain the cold chain for products that require temperature control. Refrigeration equipment in storage areas or transport trucks breaking down in the summer could threaten food safety much more quickly than in other months.
The Solution: Stakeholders should increase the frequency and breadth of maintenance checks during summer to spot any issues before they cause a refrigeration failure. Maintenance teams should understand how to repair equipment quickly and effectively ahead of time to minimize downtime. When refrigeration units are out of commission, frontline workers should carefully monitor food item temperature to make sure it does not fall out of safe range before the cold chain is restored. Consider having alternative refrigeration options such as backup units or ice storage. In addition to on-site refrigeration, stakeholders need a plan in place for how to protect food integrity if units break down during transit.
Employee Error
The Challenge: High temperatures can create uncomfortable conditions for employees and lead to carelessness as they seek relief. For example, if employees leave unscreened doors open to let in fresh air, they could allow pests into the facility and undermine sanitation and cleaning efforts.
The Solution: Reinforce employee training on food safety best practices, including how to protect facilities from pests, and additional food safety protocols designed to address the specific challenges of summer heat. As summer heat increases, it may be necessary to invest in spot cooling equipment in high-heat areas to minimize discomfort.
Maintain Food Safety Protocols Year-Round With AIB International
Maintaining food safety standards is always challenging, but summer creates unique obstacles for food and beverage companies throughout the U.S. These summer food safety tips can help manufacturers gain awareness of the hazards that come with summer heat, and develop appropriate mitigation strategies ahead of time. Leveraging the insight of trusted experts is crucial to maximizing results.
AIB International has over 100 years of experience training employees on food safety best practices, as well as helping customers identify hazards and risks in their facilities. If you want to bolster your company’s summer food safety strategy, work with one of our experts for an in-depth audit and develop an appropriate response plan.