Instore - September 2018 - 46

equipment & packaging

LATEST INNOVATION
In the Age of FSMA (the Food and Drug Administration's Food Safety
Modernization Act), instore delis, bakeries and prepared foods departments and their suppliers know that if they don't keep their facilities
clean and pathogen-free, the consequences will be severe.
Fortunately, there are sanitation specialists whose job is to help make
sure those hypothetical scenarios never become reality.
That job, however, is often far from easy. Jake Watts, vice president of
food safety at Kieler, Wisconsin-based Packers Sanitation Services Inc.
(PSSI), says labor and training are always big problems when it comes
to proper sanitation practices.
"When turnover is high, it makes it difficult to properly train employees
and establish consistent effective processes," he says. "Depending on
the nature of the business, there are also a variety of variables that
need to be considered for proper sanitation, such as the type of food

Sanitation
being processed or prepared, equipment, environment, and specific
cleaning tools needed."
And while the same basic sanitation principles may apply from case
to case, Watts says, the chemistry and methodologies may be much
different and should be tailored for each specific operation.
Retaining workers who do sanitation-related tasks and getting them
the proper training is also a perennial problem for the baked-goods
manufacturing clients of Commercial Food Sanitation, says Anthony
Saitta, a food safety specialist with the company.
"For one, sanitation is a difficult job," he says. "It's hard to keep
employees to do those jobs when they can go down the street, make $2
more per hour and not have to work as hard."
On top of that, too often workers with sanitation tasks aren't getting the
training they need, Saitta says. "It requires hands-on experience, time
and coaching," he says. When Commercial Food Sanitation trainers
instruct their clients in their Seven Steps of Sanitation, they find that
not only are they not performing crucial tasks, but that they don't even
have a step-by-step protocol in place, Saitta says.
In addition to personnel-related issues, equipment plays a huge role in
whether baked goods suppliers are making the grade when it comes
to sanitation, Saitta says. A lot of equipment used today in the bakery
industry is what Commercial Food Sanitation calls "legacy" equipment.
That's basically a nice way of saying equipment that's been in use for a
half-century - or longer.

For many companies, replacing their legacy equipment is a non-starter,
Saitta says. But most clients that Commercial Food Sanitation works
with are at least open to replacing a part or parts of a particular piece
of equipment in order to reduce those hidden pockets that can harbor
potentially troublesome materials.
Overcoming misconceptions about bakeries' ability to harbor pathogens can be a tall task, Saitta says. The whole idea of the baking

Proper training and a clear, step-by-step procedure for sanitation are critical.
46 * SEPTEMBER 2018 * instore

COMMERCIAL FOOD SANITATION, BEST SANITIZERS INC.

With legacy equipment, "there's not a lot of hygienic design, which
has really moved to the forefront" in bakery and food production in
general, Saitta says. A hygienically-designed piece of equipment, he
says, is easier to clean and contains far fewer hidden areas that can
escape detection. "If you can't see it, you can't clean it and you can't
inspect it," Saitta says. Those hidden places are where food or other
materials can hide and, over time, collect moisture and potentially
produce pathogens.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Instore - September 2018