Sanitation of your food plant, plays an imperative role in preventing contamination and airborne illness. That is why it is essential to have a written sanitation preventative control program. Your sanitation program must cover cleaning and sanitizing everything in your plant that is affected by your production.

This includes;

  • All equipment surfaces and utensils including meat slicers, counter tops, food processing equipment etc. that have come in contact with raw meat, fruits, vegetables or dairy. vegetables.
  • All surfaces that may indirectly affect food safety, such as outer surfaces of the equipment.
  • The environment were products are processed which, includes the walls, floors, drains, ceilings and any overhead structures.

When writing your program be sure to also include the following with a checklist;

  • All equipment surfaces and utensil surfaces that come in contact with your instructions on how to properly clean and sanitize.
  • Employees who are responsible for the cleaning and sanitizing of each piece of equipment, surface or utensils.
  • A clear set of standards of excellence to ensure the job is done correctly.
  • Deciding what records need to be kept and for how long.

Ensure you are using a check list to monitor daily tasks, with check in and out of employees and signatures to determine responsibility. By creating and following a sanitation schedule, you will be able to monitor daily, weekly and monthly tasks and keep on top of tasks that are not being done on a regular basis. This checklist should outline which, tasks have to be done when and if they are being completed. Ensure that you update this checklist whenever new equipment, rooms or types of products are added.

While, it is important to ensure that equipment, rooms and utensils are cleaned and sanitized, it is equally important to make sure that employees are not cross contaminating the equipment and the production area.

  • Make sure employees put on clean clothing or outer covering such as a lab coats.
  • Ensure that footwear is sanitized or only used inside the specific food plant.
  • Hands have been washed or that employees use new gloves each time.

The most common causes of illness are cross contamination of cooked food with raw food. This causes food borne illnesses that can be costly as well as devastating to businesses. To ensure that your cleaning systems are effective ensure you are keeping track with a fool proof checklist, as well that you are doing in-depth evaluation of your processes.

For more information contact us at www.mwac.ca