Baking&Snack - May 2013 - 91

Q&A: SUSTAINABLE SANITATION
Joe Stout

Sustainable sanitation. It’s not an oxymoron. Rather, it’s about focusing on food safety above anything else and then finding ways
to incorporate cleaning into a company’s sustainability program.
Sanitary equipment designs can be a big help, and many bakeries,
snack manufacturers, and cookie and cracker producers will see
the latest in automation and sanitary designs at the International
Baking Industry Exposition, Oct. 6-9, in Las Vegas.
In our exclusive report, we challenged our contributing editor Joe
Stout to tackle the issues of sanitation, food safety and sustainability.
Mr. Stout, CEO and founder of Commercial Food Sanitation
LLC, worked for Kraft Foods for 29 years, eventually as direc-

tor of global product protection, sanitation and hygienic design.
While at Kraft, he oversaw global responsibility for manufacturing plant cleaning controls and processes, allergen and pathogen
control programs, pest control and hygienic design for facilities
and equipment used in more than 200 Kraft plants to ensure the
equipment and facilities were cleanable and effectively cleaned.
Mr. Stout knows more than almost anybody in the world about
sanitation and food safety. That’s why Baking & Snack’s Dan
Malovany asked him to share his thoughts about sanitation and
food safety in a world that’s more environmentally friendly. To
contact Mr. Stout, email him at Joe.Stout@cf-san.com.

Keeping Clean
While Being Green
Sustainability and sanitation can work together,
but make no compromises when it comes to food safety.
Dan Malovany: What primary
steps must a bakery take
to establish more sustainable
sanitation procedures?
Joe Stout: Actually, I ask two questions
when I hear sustainable sanitation. First,
how does a facility build sanitation programs that will be robust for many years to
consistently keep — without deviation —
the plant clean and food products safe on a
24 /7 basis? Second, how can we minimize
the impact to the environment from the
chemicals, tools and time it takes to complete the sanitation process? Each is very
important. After all, sanitation is the start
of the process to make a safe product, and
unless you begin clean, you are not going
to succeed.
In either situation, first and foremost,
food safety must not be compromised.

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This means the proper validations, verifications and overall monitoring must be
in place before starting the effort. Getting
procedures written and establishing a
strong training program so sanitation
standard operating procedures (SSOPs)
are repeated the same way every day are a
great start to make sanitation sustainable
over time while minimizing the impact to
the environment.
With the program foundation rocksolid, a cross-functional team of sanitation, quality, maintenance and operations
should be engaged to optimize the process.
On a monthly basis, calculating key performance indicators (KPIs) will be a window to your success. This must be supplemented with inspections or walk-throughs
that provide indications of performance as
well. The KPIs as well as plant and line ap-

pearance during inspections should align
on the performance level and environmental friendliness of the program.

What are the most difficult challenges in making sanitation more
environmentally friendly?
The challenge is getting an optimally
designed bakery. Legacy bakeries are more
difficult to modify to be sustainable, but
a new facility design with new equipment
can be dreams-come-true for sanitarians
and environmentalists. In legacy facilities,
the key is working with the leadership
team and engineering group to understand
that improvements are possible. In either
legacy or new facilities, putting resources
toward getting hygienic design correct
takes a real vision.
Getting the best design can lead to more

May 2013 / Baking & Snack / 91

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Baking&Snack - May 2013

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