Sanitation and cleaning practices evolve to keep up with demands

Experts offer advice on keeping a safe, hygienic snack or bakery environment

Running a tight ship, when it comes to a sanitation program in a bakery or snack manufacturing environment, is vital. However, even the most well-designed, expertly run strategy can occasionally experience incidents and setbacks. In order to minimize the risk, managers should work to prevent such incidents (rather than react), and make sure everyone on the payroll understands how crucial keeping things clean is to the success of the business.

Key considerations

Richard Walsh, senior staff scientist with Ecolab, says sanitation and cleaning practices impact much more in a food production environment than keeping a neat appearance.
“In addition to preventing food safety events and ensuring consumer safety, industrial bakeries strive to maximize flavor profiles and lengthen the shelf life of their products,” he states. “These concerns all go hand in hand, and they all depend heavily on a comprehensive approach to cleaning and sanitation. This approach involves everything from preventing raw-ingredient spoilage and pest-related contamination to mitigating environmental risk and cross-contamination in finished products.”

Wan Mei Leong, food safety specialist lead with Commercial Food Sanitation (CFS), says the company has noticed a number of key sanitation and cleaning concerns that bakery and snack producers face, such as balancing operational efficiency with food safety.

“Producers face constant pressure to maximize uptime and meet production targets,” she states. “Cleaning and sanitation activities must be executed efficiently without causing excessive downtime. This requires well-structured cleaning schedules and validated methods that maintain food safety while supporting operational goals.”

Stacey Prager, CFS food safety manager for B&S, says the pressure to offer a broader range of bakery or snack items can place a strain on an operation’s sanitation program.

“Companies are placing greater emphasis on operational and sanitation efficiency as consumer demand drives a wider variety of products, such as gluten-free or clean-label offerings,” she observes. “This increased product diversity adds complexity to bakery operations, leading to more frequent changeovers and shorter production runs, which in turn makes downtime more costly and sanitation planning/execution more challenging.”

Other concerns that cleaning and sanitation programs touch upon that the CFS team has noted, Leong says, include allergen control, woes of legacy equipment and infrastructure limitations, and challenges associated with dry cleaning in low-moisture environments.

Glenn Campbell, president of Campbell Systems, says with flours and other powdery substances common to such environments, “Ingredient dust collection benefits the sanitation needs of a bakery addressing two areas: reducing the manpower needed to meet facility cleanliness standards, and mitigating risks related to any combustible dusts, which many food ingredients are classified as (flour, sugar, corn starch, etc.).”
Campbell adds that with accumulated dusts and powders, producers risk also risk incurring stiff financial penalties.
“Hence, many producers choose dust collection equipment at the ingredient source; this includes hand scaling of minor ingredients, and hoods above the process/make up areas and subsequent conveyors,” he says. “Solutions vary greatly dependent and application, producers should reply on food related suppliers to ensure the equipment selected performs as expected but also does not create different sanitation problems.”

Walsh says being comprehensive and thorough in crafting and executing a sanitation strategy is key.
“Even diligently run programs can fall prey to cleaning and sanitation gaps that threaten to upend food safety,” he shares. “Modern food production facilities include lots of mechanization at large scales, and these can create harborage points that can foster microbial niches, or ‘hot spots.’ They can be difficult to access and clean and sanitize and are therefore at risk of contributing to unaddressed microbial risks, either as spoilage organisms, or in the worst case, pathogenic organisms.”

Gerry Galloway, CEO of FoodReady, says evolution of food safety regulations and requirements requires that bakery and snack operations aim for more proactive programs.
“The focus on sanitation has intensified, moving toward more sophisticated preventative measures, largely driven by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA),” he shares. “This shift mandates prevention over reaction. Consequently, cleaning cannot be deemed complete based solely on a visual inspection. Validation of cleaning effectiveness is a formal requirement, similar to allergen management, where verification through regular testing is non-negotiable. Furthermore, there is pressure to adopt equipment with hygienic designs that minimize harborage points. However, the substantial cost of new equipment often renders this option infeasible.”

Esperanza Carrion, VP/GM of Sani Professional, says while FSMA and other forces are motivating bakery operations to step up their sanitation and cleaning game, advances in tech and practices are helping the efforts.
“Advancements in automation, rapid detection, and now artificial intelligence (AI) have enabled more proactive and predictive sanitation practices,” she notes. “These tools help identify contamination earlier, improve verification, and shorten recall timelines from weeks to hours.
Carrion also says improved practices also have helped, but the continuing struggle with labor shortages, and the likelihood of human error in cleaning/sanitation efforts, have helped to accelerate from traditional, low-tech “rag and bucket” methods.

Solutions and advice

Walsh has noticed while challenges in keeping snack and bakery operations hygienic, the range of solutions at producers’ disposal is broader than ever.

“’Dry’ cleaning solutions have become much more advanced in recent years; water-related risks that were once a huge pain point can now be almost completely avoided with a number of powerful chemistries and advanced strategies for minimizing and controlling water used for  cleaning and sanitation operations,” he observes. “So, it’s not so much that the worries themselves have evolved; it’s that our solutions for addressing them have made significant progress in resolving them––if we choose to modernize and embrace these new solutions.”

Walsh says Ecolab offers a range of solutions to help cleaning and sanitation in food environments, including Exelerate and DrySan dry cleaning products, and Boost drain-cleaning solutions. “Combined with our extensive industry expertise, Ecolab chemistries can drive better food safety outcomes throughout industrial baking,” he notes. 

David Hoffman, director of engineering with Campbell Systems, says it is never too early to incorporate sanitation and cleaning systems (such as dust collection technology) when planning.
“There are significant savings when the dust collection is integrated into the OEM equipment, primarily installation time and fewer electrical panels,” he advises.

Leong says taking stock of an operation’s sanitation program and practices can help identify areas of weakness and room for improvement.

“Managers looking to assess and improve their cleaning and sanitation programs should begin with a comprehensive gap assessment to identify weaknesses across the entire sanitation system. A risk-based approach is essential to prioritize areas that pose the greatest food safety risk,” she notes.

While keeping equipment and facility surfaces neat and clean is of vital importance, Carrion says managers cannot neglect the cleanliness of their staff. “Personal hygiene remains a critical factor. Inadequate handwashing, improper use of PPE, or overlooked health checks can introduce contaminants, so consistent hygiene practices, including gloves, hairnets, and mandatory handwashing, are essential to maintaining a clean and safe environment,” she reminds.

Then, Walsh advises managers to make cleaning and sanitation a stated priority, and ensure personnel at every level are fully aware of the critical nature of the mission.

“Work with your peers and teams to make cleaning and sanitation a cultural mindset within your organization—if employees view C&S as a begrudging task, they aren’t likely to proactively contribute to the continuous improvement of your facility’s food safety program,” he muses. 

“However, if they see themselves as active participants in a culture that keeps their environment hygienic, safe, helping to protect your customers, and maximizing your product quality, they are more likely to contribute to a thriving food safety program not only by following necessary protocols, but also by proactively offering insights or opportunities for improvement when they crop up,” Walsh continues. “This type of on-the-ground visibility into how operations can continuously improve is invaluable for a cleaning and sanitation manager.”