Sector guide · Food processing
Food factory workwear is specified by auditors as much as by wearers: garments designed so nothing falls in the product, coloured so nobody crosses a zone unnoticed, and laundered to standards a certificate depends on. It's the most rule-dense wardrobe on this site — and every rule traces to a recall that once happened.
The design rules
Food-industry garments look odd until you read them as contamination controls: no external pockets above the waist (nothing can fall into open product), snap studs instead of buttons (buttons detach; studs don't), internal pockets only, no loose fibres, and light colours that show soiling honestly. Add the personal rules — hairnets and beard snoods, no jewellery, metal-detectable plasters and pens — and the whole system exists so the metal detector and the auditor both stay quiet.
Zone colour coding does the movement control: low-risk and high-care areas run different garment colours so a body in the wrong zone is visible across the factory floor, with changing procedures at the boundary.
The kit
| Item | Spec | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Hygiene coats & trousers | Stud-front, pocket rules as above, zone colour | The audit-grade base garment |
| Footwear | S4/O4 wellingtons or S2/O2 washable, SR | Daily washdown; toe caps where handling justifies |
| Hairnets, snoods, sleeves | Single-use, dispensered by zone | The disposables logic at scale |
| Aprons | Polythene or PVC by station | Wet lines destroy fabric; wipe-down wins |
| Cold-chain layers | EN 342 under hygiene outers | Chill and blast-freeze areas — the Grimsby reality |
| Gloves | Food-contact approved nitrile; cut-rated for knife lines | Two standards, one line — cut letters for the boning room |
The laundering
High-care food environments typically mandate industrial laundering — garments cycled through a contracted laundry to validated standards, not taken home — while lower-risk areas may permit controlled home washing on the separate-hot-dry pattern. Either way the fleet needs the maths: enough sets per person for the laundry cycle, and a garment spec that survives it — which loops back to studs, seams and fabric weight. Buying pretty coats that die at 85 °C is the sector's classic false economy.
Buying
Questions
So nothing can fall from a pocket into open product — the same logic behind snap studs replacing buttons and metal-detectable accessories. Hygiene garment design works backwards from foreign-body contamination.
Different garment colours for different risk zones — commonly separating high-care from low-risk areas — so anyone in the wrong zone is visible at a glance. It pairs with changing procedures at zone boundaries and colour-locked reordering.
High-care areas generally mandate industrial laundering to validated standards; lower-risk roles may be permitted controlled home washing (separate load, hot, dried fast) per policy. The site's audit standard, not preference, decides.
Supply and customise, or embroider what you already use — send the logo and the headcount.