Clean blending and mixing

The 25-km drive on the Pune-Sholapur Road the next day was a refreshing experience. The vineyards and palm groves on either side and the dark clouds above added to the enjoyment.

Located amid these green lushes is one of the production units of the four-decade-old Pravin Masalewale started by the Chordia family way back in 1962. Some 40,000kg of wide varieties of spices, blends & mixes and papads are shipped every day out of the three modern automated plants to around 30 million consumers.

The aroma of freshly ground spices coalesced with the different shades of yellow, red and green masala sprinkled across the floor; ladies clad in caps and aprons busily cleaning raw spices; machines sorting spices; cleaners running dry mops over spillages… gave an instant blend of traditional India in a modern factory.

It was the second shift at the Yawat plant of Pravin Masalawale where basic and blended spices are manufactured.

Heli Laliwala, QA officer at the plant, busy supervising the various cleaning activities, stepped out to explain how they maintained cleanliness and hygiene in keeping with the HACCP, ISO and other standards.

Spread over an area of four acres, the factory is divided into the cleaning & sorting section, processing & grinding section and finally the packaging section. Outside the manufacturing area lay the toilets and the canteen.

The white sanitary-ware in the toilet sparkled having been freshly washed and sanitised with JohnsonDiversey’s SU120 all-purpose (food graded) disinfectant. The toilet is washed at least 10-12 times a day. “We have around four cleaners in the first shift when the production is in full capacity with 200 workers on the line.” This numbers wane to 150 workers in the second shift and around 60 in the third. Similarly, we have four, two and one cleaner in the three shifts respectively, who clean and sanitize the toilets. The toilet is equipped with liquid soaps and hand dryers instead of tissues with neat instructions on hand washing and sanitizing procedures. Proceeding to the sorting section, I could spot PCI’s rodent trap.

Rodent traps are a must being a food processing plant. “But since our factory is elevated, we do not face a problem. As a precaution, we have traps laid outside. We have tied up with Pest Terminator, Pune, for pest control services.”

Similarly, for hand sanitizers, dispensers and hand dryers Pravin has tied up with Technocrats. Hand sanitizers neatly hung at the entry to the sorting section with Technocrats’ insectocutor above. “We are now in the process of obtaining air-curtains from them.”

The message “Wash hand properly for product & personal safety” was written in bold right inside the sorting and cleaning hall. A uniformed worker was busy mopping the floor with a squeegee. “There is a person stationed in all the departments on all the shifts to dry mop that area regularly as we are handling fine spice powder which tends to fly around.” Depending on the kind of spice, it is taken up for cleaning. Most of the raw materials come from quality vendors. “We have been in business since 1962 and have been purchasing from the pest vendors. We get clean stock most of the time. Only seeds like coriander, etc., are fed into the automatic cleaning machines. We have a conveyor belt where cleaning of turmeric takes place, automated machines clean up coriander seeds or cumin seeds. Other raw materials like raw chilli are sorted. Most of the raw materials received get processed immediately. Not much is stored.”

In food processing, utmost care should be taken where hygiene and cleanliness are concerned in stocking raw material. Any kind of negligence could lead to contamination or infestation. Pest control activities keep infestation at bay and spices.

Most of the deep cleaning activities in the processing and grinding section are done on Thursday, being a weekly holiday. Having recently bought the Nilfisk scrubber-drier, it was on a trial run at the Suhana blending plant. “We also have the Taski machines.” Usually, in the third shift the entire area is taken up for scrubbing, vacuuming and blowing. The production equipment too is vacuumed and blow dried. Mixing machines are washed with high pressure jets. “We have one of Bosch at present and have placed an order with Nilfisk, Laliwala informed.

“Basically, workers do not handle the material as we have an automated system. The materials are fed and the finished product gets collected, which is then packed.”

The high ceiling at the processing unit is cleaned every quarter by the workmen of an external agency who go up the ladders with their back packs.

For the last seven years, a local housekeeping company, has been maintaining the premises under close supervision of the QA Department. Around 21 janitors work in the housekeeping.

Regular micro biological tests are conducted to ensure there are no contaminants in the air or the product. “We always try to improvise on our detergents and disinfectants for better results of hygiene. Fumigation is also done depending on the need.”

With various awards in its bag, Pravin Masalawale strives for 100% cleanliness at all its units. “We recently underwent auditing of the Spice Board last month. We have also received several awards, including the Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award from Bureau of Indian Standards-2006, CII-Exim Bank Award for Business Excellence 2008 and ISO 22000: 2005 certification since 2007.