10 Things to Know About Color-Coding: Preventing Cross-Contamination

How Color-Coding Keeps Your Food Safe

This is the third installment in our series about the benefits of color-coding in food processing environments. As you may already know, cross-contamination remains one of the most significant risks in food production. It’s crucial for facilities dealing with potential cross-contamination issues to adopt color-coding strategies to minimize these risks. After all, no food processor wants to face a recall due to contamination, and regulatory bodies like the FDA are strict about maintaining food safety standards.

The FDA mandates compliance with regulations like HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points), which provides guidelines to reduce the chances of cross-contamination. By implementing color-coding, facilities can significantly cut down on the risk of contamination that could lead to product recalls. Color-coding helps maintain cleanliness and separation between different types of food, ensuring that harmful bacteria or allergens don’t mix.

For instance, raw meat and processed meat should always remain separate to avoid bacterial transfer. A straightforward way to achieve this is through color-coded tools and equipment. In a well-implemented color-coding system, raw meat zones might be marked with red, while cooked areas could use green. This visual distinction makes it easy to identify when something is out of place, allowing immediate corrective actions to be taken.

Practical Examples of Color-Coding Systems

Here are some examples of how color-coding can work effectively:

• Functional Cross-Contamination: Red for raw meat, green for cooked meat.
• Departmental Cross-Contamination: Blue for seafood, yellow for chicken.
• Allergen Cross-Contamination: White for milk, green for soy, yellow for wheat.

By clearly marking zones and tools, color-coding ensures that employees follow proper procedures without confusion. This system not only improves efficiency but also enhances overall food safety. In the next part of our series, we’ll explore how color-coding can help identify critical control points within your facility. For further insights into color-coding practices, feel free to download our white paper below.