Facilities, Equipment, Cleaning, Sanitizing, and Pest Management
Facilities and equipment
Food-contact surfaces must be smooth, durable, nonabsorbent, and easy to clean. Handwashing sinks must be separate from the three-compartment sink and the mop sink, accessible, and stocked with soap, water at about 100°F, and single-use towels. Provide backflow prevention (air gaps, vacuum breakers), potable water, shielded lighting over food, and garbage containers with tight lids.
Use equipment meeting NSF or equivalent standards. Keep thermometers calibrated: ice-point method at 32°F, or boiling point adjusted for altitude.
Cleaning and sanitizing
These are different steps. Clean first - remove soil with detergent - then rinse, then sanitize to reduce pathogens to safe levels. Sanitizing a dirty surface does not work.
Approved sanitizers and typical concentrations: chlorine 50–100 ppm, quaternary ammonium 200–400 ppm, iodine 12.5–25 ppm; follow the label contact time and test with strips. Heat sanitizing uses water at 180°F in the final rinse or 160°F at the surface.
Three-compartment sink: scrape, wash in 110°F detergent water, rinse, sanitize, then air dry. Mechanical warewashers need correct wash and rinse temperatures and a final rinse. Store wiping cloths in sanitizer, change solutions often, and avoid sponges.
Pest management
Use integrated pest management: deny pests entry, food, and shelter. Watch for droppings, gnaw marks, grease trails, and flies. Work with a licensed pest control operator; do not apply pesticides in food areas.
Traps
- Forgetting that sanitizer concentration must be tested, not guessed.
- Assuming towels can replace air drying.
- Confusing cleaning (soil removal) with sanitizing (pathogen reduction).
Rule of thumb
Wash, rinse, sanitize, air dry - and test the sanitizer every time you mix a batch.