Thoughts from a food production line

I've had to dig out an old blog and hurriedly remove all the bad poetry still remaining from a phase over a decade ago (you'd be glad I did, it was gratuitously depressing.) I need to make a slightly extended point about my thoughts after working on a food production line. So here we are. The main thing that hit me was the amount of non recyclable plastic that is used day in, day out. I've already posted about this but I think this deserves a bit more attention. 

There are at least 5 units at Greencore in Northampton, supplying sandwiches, wraps, salads and sushi to Marks & Spencers and all the major UK supermarkets. I firstly must point out that I was impressed by the standards of hygiene, especially in the unit which specialises in the production and packing of sushi products, and this is where I spent the majority of my time. Staff are required to wash their hands 3 times before hitting the line (once after removing your own shoes, again after putting on the shoes provided, yet again after suiting up and descending the stairs to the production area and then there is a barrier which you can only pass after applying hand sanitiser. The use of vinyl gloves is not mandatory, but is strongly encouraged. Hygiene aside, with max temperatures of 5 degrees an extra layer is necessary to keep the fingers moving and fabric gloves are provided to wear under the vinyl ones for this purpose. Some jobs are particularly chilly, handling the sachets of ginger, for example, as these are still partly frozen at the point of packing. For these reasons, non recyclable vinyl gloves are worn virtually all the time and are changed each time a new product is packed on the call of 'Now wash your hands and change your gloves!'. Non recyclable plastic arm covers are used the majority of the time too, to prevent sleeves touching the food - it can get very messy very quickly without these. Bearing in mind that each unit has multiple lines running 24/7, with a minimum of 20 staff on each line, changing gloves and arm coverings at least 6 times per 8 hour shift (some of these will be due to damage too, have you ever tried putting plastic gloves on straight after washing your hands?) so it doesn't take too long for thousands of non recyclable items to be heading for landfill, of course, this will be in non degradable bags. There are bins everywhere, constantly being emptied by a dedicated team of cleaners. Add to this ream upon ream of disposable antibacterial cloths, the lines have to be scrubbed down after each batch of food is produced and then dried off with J cloths. Food waste is another subject entirely and although I know Greencore participate in the Luminary programme to reduce food waste there are still bags and bags of this being transferred to totes which are headed - I have no idea where.

My point isn't to make anyone feel bad for buying prepared foods, God knows I lived on them for what amounted to years when I couldn't find the motivation to cook from scratch or to choose what was might be good for me, I've probably added more single use plastic to landfill than both of you put together (that's the two of you who read the blog). The point is that we all continually focus on the end product packaging, manufacturers all have their long term plans for eliminating plastic from this stage of production but what happens behind the scenes is never discussed.

My feeling is that this is unavoidable as long as we want a wide selection of pre prepared foods, produced in a way that is hygienic and with the safety of the line operators in mind. We are all so used to having the choice of convenience foods and it's difficult to imagine that ever changing. I'm glad to be in a position to choose against pre prepared foods most of the time, now. I'm quite sure I'll never reach the heights of complete abstinence as long as they are available but my experience on the line has definitely reinforced a need to cut right back. It may be a temporary joy but I now look forward to making my own lunch, free of gloves, unnecessary plastic and disposable paraphernalia, and being able to pop a finger in my mouth when the need arises.