Forklift Entryway Sanitizing Systems Case Studies

Case Study 1 | Reduced Risk of Cross Contamination

Summary
A food plant processing company experienced an outbreak of Listeriosis and put a program in place to prevent the transfer of the micro organism by making the employees sanitize their hands and footwear when going between raw processing areas and finished goods areas.

Further investigation revealed that the companies forklift tires where spreading the contamination throughout the facility by transport of both raw materials and finished goods to various parts of the plant.

Challenge
How can the company reduce the chances of spreading the pathogen without causing lost time due to workers having to manually carry products across these borders or dedicating a forklift to just being used in one area.

Solution
The company installed Automated Forklift Entryway Sanitizing Systems on all of its forklifts. This allowed them to automatically spray a sanitizer directly onto the wheels of the forklift as it was entering the finished goods area.

Results: Swabbing the tires of the forklifts both before and after application of the sanitizer revealed a significant reduction in viable micro organisms on the tires surfaces. Repeated applications upon each entry into controlled areas of the plant reduced the cross contamination to acceptable levels.

Case Study 2 | Dry food processor

Summary
An almond processing company sold it’s almonds to a large well known food processor. The food processor required the almond supplier to sanitize all workers hands and feet as well as all wheeled traffic going into the packaging areas of the plant. This required the workers to dismount their forklifts and obtain a hand held sprayer that was used to manually spray all wheels of their lift with sanitizer before they could enter the
packaging area.

Challenge
The addition of this requirement caused a slowdown in production and a hazard of dismounting and remounting the workers forklift every time the worker drove into the packaging areas.

Solution
The company installed Automated Forklift Entryway Sanitizing Systems on all of its forklifts. This allowed them to automatically spray a sanitizer onto the wheels of the forklift as it was entering the packaging area.

Results: Sanitizing the tires upon entry was now automatically done when the photo sensor signaled the sanitizer pump to run as the forklift entered the packaging area. Swabbing the tires of the forklifts both before and after application of the sanitizer revealed a significant reduction in viable micro organisms on the tires surfaces. Repeated applications upon each entry into controlled areas of the plant reduced the cross contamination to acceptable levels.

Case Study 3 | A cereal manufacturing facility

Summary
A cereal manufacturing facility knew that their sanitation program would be stronger if they could control the chances of cross contamination when entering and exiting the plant. They had already added entryway foot sanitation for the employees but did not want to spray large amounts of water borne sanitizers to the floors
in entryways. Their opinion was that dragging water into a dry area not only causes moisture retention, but also created a slip hazard.

Challenge
How could the company add sanitation protocols to the forklifts without installing entryway sanitizing systems to all of its doors and dealing with the hazards related to wet floors?

Solution
The company installed Automated Forklift Entryway Sanitizing Systems on all of its forklifts. This allowed them to automatically spray a sanitizer directly onto the wheels of the forklift as it was entering the packaging area.

Results: Sanitizing the tires upon entry was now automatically done when the photo sensor signaled the sanitizer pump to run as the forklift entered the plant. Swabbing the tires of the forklifts both before and after application of the sanitizer revealed a significant reduction in viable micro organisms on the tires surfaces. Repeated applications upon each entry into controlled areas of the plant reduced the cross contamination to acceptable levels. The floors remained dry as the small amount of rapidly drying sanitizer did not track out on the floors.