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SANITATION Q&A

whole-grain ingredients — are used that may not remove some of the material typically removed with the traditional enriched white flour equipment. Also, there is the possibility that some of the ingredients because of the larger size are added directly to the mixers without sifting. When using larger-particle-size flour, programs should be established to monitor for potential foreign material contaminants with suppliers and internal to the plant monitoring procedures to ensure quality and food safety. Some flours, such as soy flour, if introduced into a system, contain allergens. Once multiple allergens are introduced into a dry handling system used for flours, there needs to be a validation of cleaning procedures as the line changes from one allergen to another or to a non-allergencontaining ingredient. You have to prove that you can clean it, or you will have a proliferation of cross-contact labeling, or worse yet, an unlabeled allergen in finished product.

What impact will the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) that was recently signed by President Obama have on bakeries’ sanitation procedures and practices? It will take time to sort out all of the specific details, and we will need to understand how the FDA will promulgate and finalize legislation required by the FSMA. It is safe to say that if it seems like a good sanitation and design idea today, it will be a better idea in the near future and, in fact, may become mandatory. The act may require that records be available to support compliance. In addition, the act includes allergen controls, so we may see more scrutiny on Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures used for allergen-related cleaning — especially changeovers. What are the biggest challenges the industry faces? I’ve been excited about how the industry has moved forward in the past two years in the area of sanitary design. People are paying attention to the details and are seeing and learning from recalls, and the OEMs are getting engaged with their customers to be part of the solution. Overall, there is a greater awareness about food safety and sanitary design than I have seen in 30 years. The biggest challenge to the baking and snack industry going forward is to keep — and, in fact, accelerate — the current momentum and to do it for the pure sake of continuous improvement versus as a reaction to the latest recall. It needs to be an ongoing program within the industry that the industry works toward versus a reaction to the latest recall or FDA activity. It needs to come from within all of us in the industry. If the industry could accomplish only one thing to improve sanitation and food safety, what would it be and why? From a tactical perspective, if we could make equipment more accessible for cleaning, that would solve half of our challenges. When we fill out the Grocery Manufacturers Association design checklist for the 10 principles of sanitary design for equipment, many of the issues are related to the lack of easy access to clean the clean the equipment. So if we are able, as an industry, to make equipment and product contact surfaces more accessible, that would be a significant equipment improvement. From a strategic perspective, I would like to have all industry participants become familiar with and understand the principles of facility and equipment design and fully take advantage of the learnings as they design buildings and equipment. After all, to make safe food, we start with a recipe, and the first ingredient is a clean plant and clean equipment, which is not guaranteed unless we have good designs. When there is industry understanding and full use of the principles, there will be contagious enthusiasm for continuous improvement in sanitary design. ◾

Easy Clean Ovens
Sanitary designed ovens used to be an oxymoron. With an increasing number of bakers expanding their product portfolios to include pizza, stuffed pockets, burritos and other premium-priced products, however, meeting the stricter requirements for USDA-inspected operations means washing down and cleaning the insides of the oven more thoroughly and more frequently. The downtime required to eliminate this grime as well as allergens and other food safety hazards can be a costly proposition, especially with such an integral piece of equipment as the oven. As a result, equipment companies such as C.H. Babb Co., Raynham, MA, now offer clean-in-place (CIP) options and ovens that feature stainless steel construction, fully welded interiors, easily accessible interiors and sloped floors where water, grime and baked-on spills can be power washed down the drain. The ovens also are on legs that help avoid hidden sanitation issues from ovens resting directly on a slab or the bakery floor. In many instances, CIP designs cut sanitation times in half, thus minimizing downtime and changeovers as well as enhancing throughput, said Charles Foran, president of the company. CIP systems come with a manual or automatic option. For conventional bakers who produce bread, muffins or similar products and clean the insides of their ovens during a monthly shutdown, the manual option may be best, Mr. Foran said. Typically, a 120-ft tunnel oven will have upward of 20 full-sized doors where sanitarians can manually power wash caked-on food, grease, allergens or other ingredients off the base or sides of the oven walls. “If you are making products with meat or fatty foods or snack products with a high oil content, it may take a little longer to clean the oven,” he said. Companies that produce such products may be forced to clean their ovens daily, which can make a fully automated CIP system a more viable option. In addition to minimizing downtime, CIP systems can facilitate more frequent cleaning of the ovens, thus eliminating product buildup and improving oven efficiency. “When you use a polished stainless steel, you can reduce flash heat considerably, almost to nothing, because the emissivity of dirty steel is approximately five times greater than that of shiny stainless steel, so you are controlling your radiant heat better and getting a better product in the end,” Mr. Foran said.

BAKING & SNACK / February 2011

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Baking&Snack - February 2011

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