Wet Cleaning a Bakery is the Way of the Future!

New FSMA regulations have made due diligence in allergen removal not only the morally right thing to do, now it’s the LAW! Dry cleaning, simply won’t remove them.

For many years, I have pondered, and doubted, the effectiveness of dry-cleaning a bakery. In the early years of my career, I was a Sanitation Manager for one of the largest bakeries in Denver, Colorado. Almost every piece of equipment was dry-cleaned.

Back then, it meant sanitors were battling a tight production schedule with shop vacuums and compressed air nozzles blazing away at flour dust with 120 PSI air, moving mountains of flour as fast as possible. As soon as anything across the room was cleaned with the vacuum, it was dirty again from re-depositing flour.

Allergen cleaning was just beginning to “become a thing” like cleaning a spiral cooler that every loaf of every variety touched (including nut-containing varieties), while drifting along their happy way until they met their ultimate doom – the slicer! Allergen varieties were typically scheduled toward the end of production runs, but that dreaded cooling conveyor chain was only cleaned ANNUALLY! As you might imagine, there were sleepless nights spent thinking about a child with a nut-allergy, consuming an accidental nut!

Dry cleaning has been the traditional method of cleaning a bakery for a variety of reasons:

• Ease of operation. It was as easy as connecting a spray gun to an air hose, and let-err-rip!
• Sanitary design of older equipment didn’t exist. Soil niches, and ease of cleaning weren’t thought about in the design phases of equipment manufacturing in the early nineteen hundreds. Much of that equipment is still in use today.
• Reduced maintenance headaches and downtime. Historically, electric motors that were “wash-down” or waterproof weren’t required in bakery design. Getting a motor wet, and the associated downtime, could cost a typical bakery $6,000 an hour, according to recent figures.
• Reduced microorganism growth. Moisture plus food equals potential mold and growth of bacteria.

Why wet clean?

• Increasing food safety legislation. Third-party audits, clients and auditors have become more demanding and want to know a food contact surface has been cleaned effectively. According to FSMA, “thorough cleaning between products with different allergens is required to prevent cross-contact”. Allergen-containing soil must be removed!  According to Charles Giambrone, Rochester Midland’s Vice President of Technical Services, and SQF Consultant, “SQF and BRC audit schemes currently require allergen control, which includes validation and testing”. Removal of all soils that could potentially contain allergens can only be removed effectively with detergent and water.
• Improvement in sanitation tools and technology. Twenty years ago, floor scrubbers with vacuum attachments, effective steam cleaners, and reliable pressure washers, weren’t advanced enough to clean a bakery as fast as today’s tools.
  
  Steam cleaners and pressure washers are now available with chemical injection, in a various array of voltage supplies, from 110 volts – 480 volts. These newer units heat up fast, and can remove most tough soils with ease, while reducing the total sanitation program’s water usage. This option fits well with most bakeries’ sustainability initiatives.
  
  Let's say you don’t have any floor drains, create a water dam with long plastic tubing (6” plastic tubing is available in 200’ rolls), filled with water, to contain the water. Afterwards, water pick-up with a riding floor scrubber that has a vacuum attachment is a snap! The idea is to GET CREATIVE folks! 

• Stored product pest elimination.  A common issue in bakeries is stored product pests. Bakeries are literal breeding grounds for red / confused Flour Beetles, Indian Meal Moths, Cigarette Beetles, just to name a few. Nothing ruins the day for the adult, larvae, or egg stages of these common pests like 180 - 250 degrees Fahrenheit! These temperature ranges are commonly achieved when using the previously mentioned cleaning equipment.

Hopefully, I have demonstrated that, depending on the environment, the pros can outweigh the cons in the argument of dry vs. wet cleaning.

Wet cleaning bakery equipment, the right way