Part four of our manual cleaning blog series focused on critical locations and the frequency of manual cleaning in those areas. In part five, we’re shifting our attention to understanding the relevant departments involved in the cleaning and sanitation process within a food facility.
Cleaning programs within a food plant are no small task. Such an essential activity cannot be left solely in the hands of the facility sanitation manager; it demands close and coordinated collaboration among multiple departments including food safety and quality assurance, production, maintenance, and purchasing. It also involves proper scheduling of tasks and careful selection, use, and maintenance of cleaning equipment, methods, and chemicals.
Certain parts of the cleaning and sanitation program can be outsourced to third-party contractors, who may perform third-shift or after-hours sanitation. These contractors are considered part of the food safety and sanitation team. Valuable input or feedback from regulatory inspectors, certification auditors, suppliers of cleaning tools, equipment, and chemicals, subject matter experts, and even customers, are crucial components of a successful program. The intricacies of a robust cleaning program depend on what is needed to ensure that food products are free from disease-causing organisms and other contaminants that significantly affect food safety and quality.
Defining, implementing, and maintaining a Master Cleaning Schedule is an intensive exercise. If we consider the Master Cleaning Schedule shown below, it requires additional independent and trained personnel to develop the programs, monitor the progress, and verify or audit the process. Responsibility for each of these must be allocated, along with documented proof that these actions occurred.
The entire organization, from senior management to factory employees, needs to be committed to producing safe food under sanitary conditions. In this regard, cleaning plays a vital role in the food safety and quality management system.
“Food Safety Culture is about creating a behavior-based food safety management system,†said Yiannas of the FDA. Thus, an all-inclusive integrated sanitation approach (which we’ll discuss in part six of this blog series) should be a key aspect of the site’s education and training programs and should be seamlessly embedded into the overall organizational culture.
Here are some ways to improve hygiene and sanitation culture when using manual cleaning tools:
- Use of food contact-compliant, color-coded, hygienically designed, durable, and high-quality cleaning tools.
- Educating and training employees on the why, what, where, when, and how of food safety and the appropriate selection, use, cleaning, storage, and maintenance of manual cleaning tools.
- Motivating employees through transformational leadership and learning opportunities.
In our next and final blog in this series, we’ll help you understand the key regulations, standards, and industry best practices that support a manual cleaning program in a food facility.
Selected References:
- Smith, Debra (2017). Optimizing Food Safety Through Good Cleaning Tool Maintenance. Whitepaper Link: http://viewer.ipaper.io/vikan/white-papers/cleaning-tool-maintenance/cleaning-tool-maintenance-whitepaper-en-300/
- Yiannas, F. (2008). Food safety culture: Creating a behavior-based food safety management system. Springer Science & Business Media.
[Image description: A detailed cleaning schedule showing different areas and their respective cleaning frequencies.]
Looking forward, we’ll continue exploring the nuances of manual cleaning in food facilities. Stay tuned for our final installment, where we’ll dive deeper into the regulatory and standards expectations surrounding manual cleaning practices.
Let me know if you’d like me to expand further on any specific section!
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