Facility Design, Equipment, and Pest Control
What you must know
Facility design supports flow: clean-to-dirty, raw-to-cooked, receiving-to-service, with no backtracking that crosses raw and RTE paths. Surfaces must be smooth, durable, nonabsorbent, and easily cleanable (e.g., stainless steel, food-grade plastic). Floors, walls, and ceilings should resist moisture and be cleanable; coving helps.
Handwashing sinks must be accessible, stocked (soap, single-use towels, signage), and used only for handwashing-never for dumping mop water or food prep. Equipment must be NSF/ANSI certified or equivalent, easy to disassemble and clean, and installed off the floor/away from walls for cleaning access.
Pest control follows integrated pest management (IPM): deny entry (seal gaps, screens, air curtains), deny food/water (tight storage, clean drains), and monitor (traps, inspections). Evidence of pests (droppings, gnaw marks, live insects) triggers exclusion of affected product and corrective action. Pesticides must be applied by licensed applicators and stored away from food.
Traps
Questions test the handwashing-sink-only rule and the difference between pest prevention vs. pesticide use. Also, "air curtain" and "self-closing doors" are design controls, not cleaning tasks. Watch for items that are not easily cleanable (wood, cracked surfaces) being described as acceptable.
Rule of thumb
Design for one-way flow and keep handwash sinks dedicated. For pests, remember deny entry → deny food/water → monitor, in that priority order.