Food washing and sanitation: the 8 steps

In a food factory, a quarter is devoted to food washing and sanitation is probably the shortest and most consequential period of the day. Just a few hours between the end of production and the restart the next day. And yet, it is during this time that the safety of the product leaving the factory gates is determined.

The problem is rarely a lack of will. It's the order of operations. And two steps alone account for the majority of the damage: dry collection and pre-rinsing. A team that starts the hose before collecting solid residue, that applies detergent without pre-rinsing, that uses water that is too hot or that sanitizes a surface that is still soiled puts in exactly the same number of hours as the team next door — except that their work accomplishes almost nothing.

The food washing and sanitation cycle includes eight steps, And they are not interchangeable. Each one prepares the next. Skipping one cancels out those that follow. And the last one—the documentation—is what proves that the other seven actually took place.

A quick reminder before we go any further: cleaning, disinfecting, sanitizing, and sterilizing are not synonyms. If these terms are being used interchangeably within your team, our glossary of hygiene sets the record straight in two minutes.

Before we begin: preparation

It's not the washing yet, but nothing should start without it.

• Lockout/tagout and safe shutdown of equipment. Never wash equipment that can be started. Dismantling of conveyors, slicers and mixers is done after locking, period.
• Withdrawal and protection. Remove products, packaging and ingredients from the area. Protect electrical panels, motors and sensors.
• Personal protective equipment. Safety glasses, gloves, boots, apron. Food sanitation products are concentrated and often corrosive — and let's remember, PPE must be provided free of charge by the employer according to the CNESST. But first... choose the right glove : a dishwashing glove cannot withstand a concentrated alkaline degreaser.
• The right equipment, dedicated to the right area. Food-grade brushes and accessories, colour code respected, no tool traveling from a drain to a food contact surface.

Step 1 — Dry Pickup

Before a single drop of water is added, everything that can be removed dry is eliminated: solid residues, scraps, dust, and debris on the floor. This is the most overlooked step in the entire cycle, and by far the most expensive when it's done carelessly.

Why is this so crucial? Simply because water doesn't make residues disappear, it dissolves them. move. A watered floor without prior collection means organic matter is pushed into drains, under equipment and into corners — exactly the places where microorganisms settle in for good.

Furthermore, dry collection doesn't stop at ground level: the beams, ducts, and structures above the lines accumulate dust that sooner or later ends up in the product. That's the whole point of... preventive dust removal from elevated structures, which is planned separately from the daily cycle.

Dry collection in practice

The specific case of dry factories

Finally, in the processing of powders, flours, spices, chocolate, or nuts, water is the main risk factor: introducing moisture into a dry environment is like awakening a Salmonella which was sleeping peacefully in a dehydrated state. These factories operate using a completely dry cleaning process, with strict control of water usage and a wet area isolated from the rest of the operations. Dry picking is not a preparatory step: it is the entire cleaning process.

The classic mistake: Start the tire right away "to go faster". You save five minutes and lose thirty on rubbing.

Step 2 — The pre-rinse

The pre-rinse removes 80 to 90% of the visible soiling. Two parameters are important:

The temperature. Warm water, around 45 to 55°C. Too cold, and the fats solidify and stick. Too hot, the proteins coagulate and literally stick to the steel — think of a pot of eggs being filled with boiling water.

The pressure. Next, the pressure must remain moderate and never directed upwards or towards other clean surfaces. High pressure aerosolizes microorganisms and projects them several meters, including onto surfaces that have just been sanitized. This is one of the most underestimated vectors of cross-contamination in factories.

Furthermore, we are still working from top down and from the cleanest area to the dirtiest. Hoses should not be left lying on the ground; a hose picked up after being submerged in a drain becomes a source of contamination.

Step 3 — Applying the detergent

Detergent loosens what water alone cannot remove: fats, proteins, caramelized sugars, mineral deposits.

Three rules:

1. The right product family. An alkaline detergent for grease and protein, an acidic one for mineral deposits and limescale. Many factories alternate them according to a precise schedule—alkaline daily, acidic once a week. Using only one product year-round means accumulating what it doesn't dissolve.
2. The right concentration. The one listed on the technical data sheet is measured, not estimated. A product that is too diluted won't work; one that is too concentrated is expensive, leaves residue, and damages surfaces. If notations like 1:64, 1:128, or "2 %" are causing confusion within your team, Here's how to read and calculate a dilution, with a chart to be displayed in the maintenance room. The use of a product diluter ensures correct dilution at all times.
3. Contact time. Finally, allow generally 10 to 20 minutes depending on the product. This is chemical working time, not downtime. Foam exists precisely for this purpose: it adheres to vertical surfaces and prolongs contact.

Above all, remember this: The detergent should never dry on the surface. Indeed, if it dries, it redeposits the dirt it had removed.

Step 4 — Mechanical Action

Detergent loosens, scrubbing removes. No chemical product on the market completely replaces mechanical action — and manufacturers who suggest otherwise are just selling you on recovery time.

This is precisely where the contamination niches Joints, welds, threads, conveyor undersides, rollers, handles, drains, wall corners. These are the places, invisible from the central aisle, that harbor biofilms — these layers of microorganisms protected by a matrix that sanitizers have difficulty penetrating.

For example, a biofilm of Listeria monocytogenes Installed in a cracked joint, it can survive months of daily disinfection. The only thing that will dislodge it is scrubbing, in the right place, with the right tool.

Step 5 — Rinsing

Rinsing removes the detergent And the dirt it held in suspension. Skipping or rushing this step leaves chemical residues which, in addition to potentially migrating into the product, will neutralize the sanitizer applied immediately afterwards.

Indeed, many sanitizers—quads in particular—lose a significant portion of their effectiveness upon contact with an alkaline detergent residue. You apply the product, you respect the contact time, and nothing much happens.

Thus, we rinse until there is no more foam, no more slipperiness under the glove, and we remove the accumulated water.

Step 6 — The Inspection

This is the step that 90% of % teams skip, and it's the one that gives meaning to everything else.

You can never sanitize a surface that is not visually clean. A sanitizer is designed to act on a surface that has already been cleaned; on a surface that is still soiled, the organic matter consumes it before it can reach anything.

In practice, the inspection is done with a flashlight, at an angle, by bending over, and by running a gloved finger under the edges. The same critical points are checked each time, ideally with a written list. If a point fails, you return to step 3 for that point. This isn't a failure; it's the system working.

Finally, ask yourself the real question: If an inspector showed up tomorrow morning, would you feel comfortable?Your response speaks volumes about how rigorous you are about this step.

Step 7 — Sanitation, drying and recommissioning

Sanitation

Measured concentration, even application, and adherence to contact time are essential. First, check whether your product requires a final rinse or is approved for no-rinse use—both exist, and choosing the wrong one has opposite consequences.

Drying

Next, be aware that stagnant water is a breeding ground for microorganisms. Scrape, eliminate puddles, and ensure good air circulation. A factory that restarts with water accumulated under its equipment negates some of the work done overnight.

Reassembly and pre-operational inspection

Then comes the reassembly. The reassembled parts, often handled with bare hands or placed on questionable surfaces, are sanitized again. Then someone—ideally not the person who did the washing—checks everything before it starts.

And the proof

Finally, keep in mind that visual inspection proves nothing microbiologically. That's the role of verification: ATP luminometer, swabbing, contact plates, environmental sampling. Without this data, you might think it's clean. With it, you know for sure—and you can demonstrate it to an inspector, a client, or an auditor.

Step 8 — Completing the HACCP documentation

The job isn't finished when the factory is clean. It's finished when it's written down.

First, let's admit it: it's often perceived as administrative paperwork, an end-of-shift chore imposed by the office. Yet it's the one thing that transforms good work into evidence Good work. Whether facing a MAPAQ or CFIA inspector, a GFSI auditor, or a client who demands to see your records before signing, the rule never changes: If it's not written down, it hasn't been done.

However, your standardized sanitation procedures (SSOPs) are part of the prerequisite programs upon which your entire HACCP plan or preventive control plan is based. An HACCP plan without completed sanitation records is just a plan on paper.

What the register must record, at a minimum

• The date, the hour, and the quarter past
• The line, area or equipment in question
• The products used, their concentration, and the contact time observed
• The results of the pre-operational inspection, point by point
• The observed non-conformities, the corrective actions applied and their result
• Verification results: ATP, swabbing, environmental sampling
• The initials of the person who carried it out and the person who checked it.

Three rules that make all the difference

1. We fill it in real time, no memory. In other words, a register completed on Friday for the whole week has no value — and a listener can spot it immediately by the uniformity of the handwriting.
2. We never write in advance. A form pre-filled before the inspection is falsification, not a time-saver. This is the kind of finding that leads to losing certification.
3. A written non-conformity is not an admission of failure. On the contrary, it's exactly the opposite: a log showing perfect performance for three years is not credible. A log showing a detected, corrected, and verified problem demonstrates that your system is working.

And above all, use it.

Because a register filed away but never reviewed is useless. Reviewed monthly, it tells you which of your pieces of equipment consistently fail the pre-operational inspection, at what point during the week your standards lapse, and what training each person lacks. It's your best management tool, and it costs nothing more than the time to read it.

And one thing the register never covers: washing the washing equipment

You can't clean with dirty things. A damp, soiled brush stored away becomes a breeding ground for microorganisms within hours, and the next day, it can be used to clean all your food contact surfaces. You've completed eight impeccable steps… with a potential source of contamination in your hands. The result is far from neutral: it is negative.

However, sanitation equipment—brushes, squeegees, buckets, hoses, nozzles, gloves, boots—is washed, sanitized, dried, and stored just like a conveyor belt. In a food processing environment, it must also be food-grade and comply with your color code. This is a topic in itself, which we will address in a future article. You don't wash with dirty things.

What makes the difference between a factory that passes its audits and another

Eight steps, in that order, each time, by each person, on each quarter.

In short, it sounds simple when written like that. In reality, however, what deteriorates first is always the same thing: the contact time that we shorten because we are in a hurry, the concentration that we estimate by eye because the dispenser has been broken for three weeks, the inspection that we skip because "it looked fine", and the register that we fill out from memory three days later.

Yet, these are rarely negligent people. These are people to whom no one has explained Why The water shouldn't be too hot, nor should the chemical reaction that occurs when detergent dries on stainless steel. A team that understands the why respects the how, even when no one is watching.

Two tools to anchor the why

Fortunately, two tools help to anchor all of this in daily life: a basic product and technology charter displayed in the sanitation room, and a illustrated work route A handout is provided to each individual. A visual roadmap shows the sequence of tasks, the area, the frequency, and the estimated time, using photos rather than paragraphs. In this way, it solves two problems everyone is familiar with: the new employee learning by watching an already overwhelmed colleague, and the multilingual team where written instructions don't get through. A visual is understood in French, Spanish, and English.

In fact, that's one of our services: the development of work routes, built on your locations, equipment, and real-time schedules. To delve deeper into overall organization—frequencies, sequences, and responsibilities—see also our factory cleaning strategies.

Also read on the blog

• Cleaning strategies in industrial plants — organize the work before doing it
• Optimize your factory's housekeeping while maximizing every dollar — the cost and profitability aspect
• Your commercial kitchen under the microscope — the restoration version of the same exercise
• Food grade washing accessories and products — Are you compliant?
• Decontaminate, dust, clean, disinfect, sanitize, sterilize — the basic vocabulary

Train your sanitation team

The training Good food manufacturing practices — washing and sanitation CF Salubrité covers the entire cycle: product families and their mode of action, temperatures and contact times, zones and color code, contamination niches, prevention of cross-contamination, pre-operational inspection and maintenance of sanitation records.

It can be offered at our Longueuil training room or directly at your factory, in French, Spanish or English — a real advantage when everyone on your night shift does not speak the same language.

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