Food processing uniforms play an essential role in reducing the risk of cross-contamination and maintaining cleanliness in food manufacturing environments.
Northern Uniform is proud to be the first uniform rental company in North America to successfully attain the ISO22000:2018 Food Safety Management System certification. This proves our ability to provide quality service through process control, monitoring for food safety hazards at every step of the laundering process.
Keep reading to learn more about our step-by-step process for providing safe, allergen-free garments for our food processing customers.
1. Pick-Up
Equipped with all required personal protective gear, one of our trained Service Specialists picks up the soiled garments and transports them to Northern’s facilities, while ensuring physical separation on the truck and in transit to avoid any risk of cross-contamination.
2. Washing
Food safety garments are washed at 160°F in our open-pocket washers—machines that inherently avoid cross contamination that can occur with other designs. Each garment is then inspected by our trained personnel and repaired as required.
Garments are then dried to 285°F, ensuring our customers receive hygienic garments with a quality appearance.
3. Sanitizing
With our automated alarm monitoring and computerized chemical injection, we can guarantee that all garments are properly sanitized when laundered.
As a way to verify all our systems are working effectively, we perform temperature and pH testing periodically.
4. Packaging
At Northern Uniform we take several steps to ensure zero contamination. Prior to distribution, garments that are delivery-ready are swabbed for allergens.
After testing, garments are then grouped by customer, packed and sealed, and placed into lined, sanitized carts ready for delivery.
5. Distributing
Sanitized and lined carts are loaded in their respective shuttle in route for our customer’s facilities. During delivery, our service specialists’ protocol ensures clean garments are kept separate from the soiled ones.
Afterwards, your garments will arrive clean, sanitized and ready to go!
6. Thorough Documenting
Throughout the laundry process, we follow our ISO Food Safety procedures, documenting your garment’s trajectory at every stage. Thus, keeping all the necessary records to confirm product integrity and ensure nothing has been compromised.
Northern’s P.A.S.S. | Food Program
Unlike other providers, we offer a unique program designed to streamline costs and provide full documentation for the development and maintenance of food safety workwear.
Our P.A.S.S. | Food program is a verified and traceable, fully documented, and third-party audited process. Additionally, our ISO 22000:2018 registration covers services provided under this program, which is a significant enhancement to a standard uniform service.
How It Works
Every P.A.S.S. | Food garment that passes through our plant is distinguished by a yellow-backed barcode. This identifies each garment as a P.A.S.S. program piece, which allows us to recognize them at a glance and handle the garment according to our ISO 22000 procedures. This, coupled with our RFID systems, enables tracking and managing of inventory like no one else can offer.
We’re able to verify that our P.A.S.S. | Food garments are allergen free by conducting random protein swabs of every food safety delivery.
Learn More About Our Food Processing Uniform Rental Program
Let our experienced team handle your food processing uniform program and help your business thrive. GO NORTHERN and contact us today to learn more about our food processing uniform program!
