Having a dishwasher in your home makes cleaning up after a meal so much easier — you simply load the dishes inside, add detergent, push the button and the machine does the rest. All you have to do when it’s done is stack your dishes and utensils back in the cupboard.
Yet anyone who has prepared a large meal for a party or family gathering knows how involved the cleanup process can be, even with a dishwasher. As the number of people you serve rises, the amount of work that goes into cleaning up increases, as well.
Consider how much work has to go into the cleanup process if you’re a food manufacturer. Making hundreds if not thousands of pounds of food every day means a monumental cleanup process at the end of each day. Plus, it’s not as simple as throwing everything into the dishwasher.
Food manufacturers need to clean and sanitize the heavy equipment they use to produce the massive quantities of food they generate every day. They also need to make sure they do the most thorough job possible.
Considering how essential it is to keep their equipment clean and safe to prevent foodborne illnesses, manufacturers and packagers need to follow strict food safety protocols at all times. This includes cleaning and sanitizing their equipment. Not only does this help them remain compliant with food safety regulations, but it also helps them maintain the trust consumers have in them. If food manufacturers and packagers fail to keep their equipment clean and sanitized, they may suffer serious repercussions such as heavy fines and lost reputation.
The process of cleaning and sanitizing food manufacturing and packaging equipment is more involved than simply scrubbing with soap and water. There’s a complex, detailed series of steps that need to be followed to guarantee the highest levels of food safety.
However, it may be difficult for food manufacturers and packagers to keep their employees true to this process each and every time. In the rush to get tasks done at the end of the day, some steps in this process may be overlooked or forgotten. Thus, it’s important for these businesses to keep a reminder of the proper protocols in sight at all times.
The following checklist details all of the necessary steps food manufacturers and packagers should take to ensure they are in compliance with proper cleaning and sanitation procedures. By putting this in a prominent location in your product facility, you can help keep your employees in line with everything they need to do to keep your facility and your customers safe.
About the Author
Kathy Avdis is Marketing Systems Manager for Meyer Industrial, which focuses on engineering and manufacturing premier system components for dry bulk material processing equipment, pneumatic conveyors and dust collectors. Avdis has been with the company for 28 years, currently managing the marketing/advertising programs and many electronic media projects such as websites and web store — and is administrator for CRM program Salesforce as well as the Configurator/quoting program.
