What Is Cross Contact and Preventing Cross Contact at Food and Pharmaceutical Storage Facilities
What Is Cross Contact? Food and pharma products are sensitive items that don’t always play nice with others. The efficacy of pharmaceuticals and the safe consumption of foods can be severely impacted if those products are exposed to other products. For example, 8 items – milk, peanuts, eggs, soy, tree nuts, wheat, fish, and shellfish – account for 90% of allergic reactions in the U.S. each year. Something as seemingly benign as a pallet of bananas can thus pose serious health risks to the population if, for instance, that same pallet previously held a nut product. The prevention of cross contact (i.e., exposure of one product to another) is therefore paramount at food and pharmaceutical storage facilities such as 3PL warehouses. Preventing Cross Contact There are many steps that can – and must – be taken to prevent cross contact at food and/or pharmaceutical storage facilities. These include adherence to all related GMP and FSMA/ Food Safety Pl...