Baking&Snack - October 2013 - 95

Q&A: FOOD CONTACT SURFACES
Joe Stout
Joe.Stout@cf-san.com
Food safety is often about battling the enemy you can’t see —
allergens and pathogens — in the most likely of places such as
food-contact surfaces in prep areas and on equipment. Efficient
bakery production is all about timing, so any downtime comes
with dollar signs, especially as the finalization of the Food Safety
Modernization Act (FSMA) looms on the horizon.
In this exclusive report, Baking & Snack editor Dan Malovany
and managing editor Joanie Spencer sat down with contributing editor Joe Stout, CEO and founder of Commercial Food
Sanitation LLC, to find some preventive best practices for keep-

ing equipment and all surfaces food-safe and audit-ready while
avoiding costly stoppages.
Mr. Stout knows more than almost anybody in the world about
sanitation and food safety, after working 29 years for Kraft Foods,
eventually as director 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 sanitized.

From
First
Contact

Food safety must be top of mind from beginning to end — and at every point between.
Baking & Snack: According to proposed FSMA regulations, what is the definition of a “contact surface”?
Joe Stout: In the proposed FSMA preventive control rule,
food-contact surfaces are defined as “those surfaces that contact human food and those surfaces from which drainage, or
other transfer, onto the food or onto surfaces that contact the
food ordinarily occurs during the normal course of operations.”
The phrase “food-contact surfaces” includes utensils and foodcontact surfaces of equipment.

What kinds of materials are permitted? What is the
ideal material for a contact surface in terms of food
safety vs. usability?
Based on the proposed rule of preventive control (117.40),
requirement of materials used for equipment and utensils is stated
as below:
(a) (1) All plant equipment and utensils must be so designed
and of such material and workmanship as to be adequately cleanable, and must be properly maintained. (2) The design, construction and use of equipment and utensils must preclude the adulter-

ation of food with lubricants, fuel, metal fragments, contaminated
water, or any other contaminants. (3) All equipment should be so
installed and maintained as to facilitate the cleaning of the equipment and of all adjacent spaces. (4) Food-contact surfaces must be
corrosion-resistant when in contact with food. (5) Food-contact
surfaces must be made of nontoxic materials and designed to
withstand the environment of their intended use and the action
of food, and, if applicable, cleaning compounds and sanitizing
agents. (6) Food-contact surfaces must be maintained to protect
food from cross-contact and from being contaminated by any
source, including unlawful indirect food additives.
(b) Seams on food-contact surfaces must be smoothly bonded
or maintained so as to minimize accumulation of food particles,
dirt and organic matter and thus minimize the opportunity for
growth of microorganisms and cross-contact.
(c) Equipment that is in the manufacturing or food-handling
area and that does not come into contact with food must be so
constructed that it can be kept in a clean condition.
(d) Holding, conveying, and manufacturing systems, including
gravimetric, pneumatic, closed and automated systems, must be

October 2013 / Baking & Snack / 95
Baking&Snack - October 2013

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