Having the necessary gear for a sanitary food processing environment is essential, and one item that should never be overlooked is the hairnet. Hairnets help keep employees’ hair pulled back and secured, reducing the chances of hair contaminating the food products. Because the average person loses as many as 100 hairs in a single day, food processors need to keep those loose strands from getting tangled in their products to ensure the finest quality when meat and other food items go out the door.
Six Benefits of Hairnets for Food Processing
You understand how hairnets work: they cover hair and facial hair to prevent hairs from contaminating the workplace. But you may not realize the extent to which requiring hairnets in your processing areas can benefit your products, your employees, and your customers.
1. Hygiene and Contamination Control
First and foremost, hairnets provide a critical barrier against contamination. Not only do they keep hairs out of food and other products, but hairnets also tuck hairs away from sensitive equipment that could get clogged up easily by loose hairs. While hair may be a natural part of the human body, it is not a natural piece of any food product you’re selling and should be kept separate! This makes hairnets a must for every food industry worker who directly deals with the food, from butchers to restaurant chefs.
2. Protecting Product Quality
Loose hair can negatively affect the quality of food products. Hairnets protect product quality by keeping contaminants like hair from getting into products or product packaging, preserving your brand’s reputation for excellent, high-quality food products.
3. Compliance with Health and Safety Standards
In the Code of Federal Regulations, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires plants involving the manufacture, packing, or holding of human food to ensure “wearing, where appropriate, in an effective manner, hair nets, headbands, caps, beard covers, or other effective hair restraints.”
While caps or headbands may be acceptable by FDA standards in many food service positions, it’s essential to use more thorough hair restraints like hairnets when working with food processing to ensure compliance and adherence to the highest standards of safety and hygiene.
4. Improving Productivity
Working in a hygienic environment is good for employee morale and company culture, but hairnets go beyond that. Hairnets instill confidence in employees by keeping their hair secured back away from their face. Hairnets for long hair will keep hair from falling forward and getting in an employee’s way when they’re trying to work, eliminating the need to occasionally fix their hair and have to wash their hands, which would interrupt their workflows.
5. Enhancing Workplace Safety
When using sensitive equipment and machinery in processing, hair presents a safety risk as a contaminant. Loose hairs can slip easily inside of machinery and clog it, which can lead to malfunctioning and create hazardous workplace conditions. Additionally, loose hair is at risk for getting caught in machinery, which could cause serious injury. Hairnets solve both problems by securing hair back and preventing hair from falling out into processing equipment.
6. Increased Customer Satisfaction
Consciously or subconsciously, consumers pay attention to many visual cues when entering a food service or processing establishment. Many of these cues revolve around cleanliness, and using hygiene items such as hairnets creates a positive perception of a business’s attention to detail and hygiene. Whether your facility is customer-facing on a daily basis, or even has an occasional visitor, the use of food safety attire such as gloves and hairnets ensures your business puts its best foot forward.
Types of Disposable Hairnets
While there are reusable hairnets available, they can be problematic for maintaining a hygienic work environment, largely because they would need to be laundered after every use (which is unlikely to happen). Disposable hairnets are a much more effective way to keep your hair tucked away and your processing area sanitary. At Bunzl, we offer a variety of hairnets in three main categories:
Mesh Hairnets
Mesh hairnets are made with a woven mesh pattern, allowing the hair to breathe somewhat and often blending in with the hair entirely. All of our hairnets are 100% latex free, and our mesh hairnets come in nylon or rayon materials. Here are some of the weave hairnet options available through Bunzl:
- Lightweight Nylon Hairnet for long hair
- Nylon Stockinet Hairnet for men or short hair
- Open Weave Rayon Hairnet with a thick weave for heavier hair
Bouffant Caps
Bouffant caps are larger and more obvious than mesh nets, but offer greater protection against loose hairs as the latex-free polypropylene material contains no openings. We offer two bouffant cap options through Bunzl:
- WorkHorse® Latex-Free Pleated Bouffant Caps which reviewers say are the “easiest to put on” and “hold up pretty well.”
- WorkHorse® Latex-Free Color-Coded Bouffant Caps for added safety color-coding in the workplace.
Hairnets for Beards
Hairnets for men and women with short hair are just as important as hairnets for long hair, and on top of that men should be using a special kind of net known as a beard guard. Beard guards are essentially hairnets for beards, securing over the ears or behind the head like a mask but extending down below the chin and onto the neck to keep beard hairs secured. Bunzl has two options for beard guards:
- WorkHorse® Beard Guards that are lightweight, cloth-like, and non-woven
- WorkHorse® Polyester Honeycomb Beard Guard with a breathable fine mesh and easy-to-wear elastic fit
Protect Your Process with Bunzl
Bunzl is your one-stop shop for all of your food processing equipment and supplies. From personal protective equipment to packaging, we’ll keep your workplace well-stocked so you’re never up a creek without a paddle (or, in this case, processing meat without a hairnet!).
Shop all of our processing attire, or contact us to learn more about how we can be of assistance.
