Sanitation Forms Food Safety’s Foundation

A comprehensive sanitation program remains one of the primary pillars needed to support even the most basic food safety program at food and beverage plants. Yet, even though proper cleaning of equipment and the plant environment might seem elementary, the simple fact is sanitation in an industrial environment requires a tight focus on procedure, training, execution and validation.

“We have a lot of equipment, and it all has to be sanitized every day and understand that it’s a challenging job,” says Tom Wisvari, director of processing at Cooper Farms. Many of those challenges root in having trained team members on the sanitation shift, and that has become more difficult since the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It’s hard work and typically happens during an off shift; it’s wet and hot, too,” he adds. “It’s not a great environment, so attracting talent is tough.”

Indeed, a recent study titled “Food Safety and Sanitation Trends,” produced by PMMI’s Business Intelligence group, reported labor shortages and employee turnover to be impacting end users in food and beverage — with 61% of respondents saying it was directly affecting them.

Aside from the people factor, says Sharon Beals, founder of SKKB LLC and executive director of the Women’s Meat Industry Network, other common issues arise from not adhering to the master sanitation schedule and late turnover of the plant to the sanitation shift.

“Starting the shift on time is paramount,” she says. “Sanitation shifts are often ‘crunched’ to start with; take away another 30 minutes of that window and something has to give.” The master sanitation schedule should be built on data and followed, and the plant needs to adhere to the basic blocking and tackling associated with dry pick up as well, she says.

According to Nolan Lewin, executive director of the Rutgers Food Innovation Center and director of the New Jersey Food Processors Assn., success in sanitation ultimately falls back on human touch, with employees putting in the extra elbow grease to identify and clean where and when its most needed.

“Because of the complex nature of manufacturing processes, with kettles, pumps, motors, chillers and so on, it's almost impossible to fully automate cleaning across all lines,” Lewin says. “You can clean kettles and pipes, but there will always be some place where bacteria can harbor.”

Ahead of the curve

Generally speaking, sanitation in food processing has improved, says Lewin. Many recalled products today aren’t the result of pathogen contamination, but instead the cause of mislabeling or similar issues. And as equipment design has advanced to make machinery easier to clean, the industry has also gotten better at finding even the smallest amount of contaminant via testing.

“[Sanitation] also requires validation and oversight,” Lewin says. “Having run a factory at LiDestri, I know if you don't check and verify, you run a higher risk of a problem.”

Processors seem to understand that, but according to respondents to PMMI’s food safety and sanitation report, proper validation can be challenging to achieve. While more end users (33%) said sanitizing small parts and components was a persistent issue they faced with regard to their sanitation program, 28% admitted to struggles with validating and measuring sanitation effectiveness.

Cooper Farms considers its cutting-edge bacterial swabbing program one of the most valuable tools it is using to validate its sanitation program, Wisvari states. Furthermore, Cooper Farms has applied software that allows it to go paperless in its validation program, speeding up the process and making it easier to analyze data in the moment.

“New technology now allows us to receive real-time results, so we don’t have to wait on a lab,” he explains. “There are a lot of checks that need to be done every day, and there are ways now to do that without paper and have real-time data in front of us at all times, rather than just at the end of the week or end of the month.”

Cooper Farms also focuses on sanitary design of the equipment. Wisvari says cross-functional managers comprise process improvement departments at each of the company’s two plants, which ensure the facility and equipment are designed to be easy to clean.

“For example, we make sure there are no hollow pipes or tubes and that we have platforms or catwalks to assist in cleaning tall or elevated equipment whenever possible,” he adds.

“By doing this, we also ensure sanitation team member safety. In every project we do, whether it’s new equipment or an expansion project, sanitation leaders always have a voice.”

Beals believes that’s the right approach: understanding what the sanitation crew needs to be successful and then legitimately setting them up for that success. She also advises plants to take up a validation practice instilled in her and her colleagues at IBP in the late 1990s.

“Perform overnight sanitation reviews on a random night, rotating through the plant’s senior leadership team (because this is a team sport, not just the FSQ leader’s role),” she says. “I’ve brought that to every operation I’ve worked with ever since, and it’s eye-opening.”