Planned Maintenance: The Unsung Food-Safety Control

Why this matters in UK food manufacturing When people think of food-safety controls, they picture metal detectors, cook and chill records or allergen changeovers. What keeps every one of those controls working is far less glamorous: planned, disciplined maintenance of the machinery. A metal detector with a sticking reject arm, a pasteuriser with a drifting probe or a slicer shedding a worn blade fragment is a food-safety failure that started as a maintenance failure. This article sets out five reasons maintenance belongs at the heart of food safety, and five practical steps to make it work on your site. In plain English Every food-safety control relies on a machine working properly. If the machine is not looked after, the control fails, often without anyone noticing. Good planned maintenance is how you keep product safe, keep lines running and stay ready for an audit. 1. The law and the standard expect it PUWER 1998, regulation 5 requires every employer to ensure that work equipment is "maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair", and that any…