By Author:  Dr. William Benjy Mikel, University of Kentucky

Introduction
The importance of food safety and sanitation as it relates to your economic survivability is paramount.  It just takes a review of how a few of the industry giants have been humbled by recent product recalls to understand the necessity of proper attention to sanitation.  Sanitation, although normally an afterthought or a job relegated to someone lower down the employee chain, can be the difference in not only survival but profitability.  Below are some important aspects of sanitation to consider in order to sustain your profitability and reputation. From the very beginning a commitment to sanitation is a must, beginning with construction of the facility for ease of sanitation through the development of a properly maintained plant sanitation program  

Next, the proper equipment must be available to employees to ensure successful completion of their sanitation objectives.  In addition, dedication of appropriate time within the work day is necessary for a functional sanitation program to succeed.  Continual training is vital to educate employees in the basics of proper sanitation.  Finally, employee morale in lower tier positions, as sanitation normally is classified, is vital for success. Without complete dedication to these objectives, any program, no matter how well founded, is doomed to failure. Although the primary purpose of a sanitation program is to improve the safety of the food supply, many times it takes an unpleasant event to push the food safety program in the right direction.  This may be regulatory action, or  the situation may be less visible with a gradual deterioration of a once spotless plant to one where only minimal efforts are made to maintain a sani tary environment. This decline commonly occurs over an extended period of time.

While everyone knows that sanitation has a definite cost in term of time and expense, usually the opposite side of the coin, or lack of proper sanitation, has a much higher liability.  Many of the food industry’s most successful sanitation programs are motivated by economic reality that consumers simply will not tolerate visible contaminants in their food products.  The recent public outcry over the many recalls from well-known and trusted companies has led most food processors to re-consider their dedica tion to sanitation and food safety.

Read the entire article:

 meat plant sanitation.pdf (155.37 KB)