Cleaning and Sanitizing

These are two different jobs with two different chemicals. Doing one does not accomplish the other.

• Cleaning removes visible dirt and food debris with soap and water; sanitizing reduces pathogens to safe levels with heat or chemicals — surfaces must be cleaned before they're sanitized.
• Sanitizer applied to a dirty surface does not work — soil physically shields microorganisms and neutralizes the chemical.
• Food-contact surfaces (cutting boards, prep tables, slicers, utensils) must be cleaned and sanitized; non-food-contact surfaces (floors, walls, shelves) need only be cleaned regularly.
• Detergents are chosen for the soil: general-purpose for light dirt, degreasers for grease, delimers for mineral scale, abrasives for baked-on soil.

Manual warewashing follows a fixed order. Skipping or reordering a step is one of the easiest violations for an inspector to spot.

• Before you start: scrape and pre-rinse items, then fill and check each sink.
• A standard three-compartment sink is used in this order: wash, rinse, sanitize — then air-dry.
• Wash in detergent and water at 110°F or above; rinse in clean water; sanitize in hot water at 171°F for 30 seconds or in a correctly mixed chemical solution.
• Never towel-dry — air-dry items completely on a drain board before stacking or storing them.
• Change the water when it becomes dirty, greasy or cool, and check sanitizer concentration with test strips regularly.
• In a high-temperature dishmachine, the final rinse must reach 180°F (165°F for stationary-rack machines); use a maximum-registering thermometer or heat strip to verify.

A chemical sanitizer only works in a narrow window of concentration, temperature, pH and contact time.

• Chemical sanitizers need the correct concentration and contact time — too weak fails to sanitize, too strong can be unsafe and leave residue; test strips confirm concentration.
• Chlorine (bleach): roughly 50-99 ppm, about 7 seconds contact time; effective and cheap but corrosive and quickly inactivated by soil.
• Quaternary ammonium (quats): around 200 ppm per the manufacturer, about 30 seconds; non-corrosive and stable, but water hardness affects it.
• Iodine: roughly 12.5-25 ppm, about 30 seconds; stains and is sensitive to temperature and pH.
• Always follow the manufacturer's label — it overrides any general rule of thumb — and mix solutions with water at the temperature the label specifies.
• Keep wiping cloths submerged in sanitizer buckets between uses, and change the solution when it becomes dirty or drops below concentration.

A written schedule assigns what, when, how and who — without it, the tasks nobody sees are the ones that never get done.

• Food-contact surfaces should be cleaned and sanitized every 4 hours during continuous use, and any time they touch raw protein or allergens.
• Also clean and sanitize after each task, before switching between raw and ready-to-eat food, and any time the job is interrupted.
• Disassemble equipment such as slicers, mixers and blenders to reach food-contact parts, and follow the manufacturer's instructions.
• Clean non-food-contact surfaces — floors, walls, hood filters, storage shelves, ceilings — on a written schedule to keep soil and pests down.
• Clean-in-place (CIP) equipment (soft-serve machines, beverage dispensers) must be cleaned per manufacturer instructions and at the required frequency.

Cleaning chemicals are themselves a food hazard. Most chemical contamination incidents come from storage and labeling mistakes.

• Store cleaning chemicals separately from food and never in unlabeled containers — and never store food or utensils in an emptied chemical container.
• Chemicals must be stored below and away from food, utensils and single-use items, in a dedicated area.
• Keep a Safety Data Sheet (SDS) on site for every chemical used, accessible to all staff.
• Never mix chemicals — combining bleach and ammonia products releases toxic gas.
• Wear the PPE the label requires (gloves, eye protection) and wash your hands after handling chemicals and before returning to food.