Food processors cannot make money and operate effectively unless their production lines are operating, so managing and minimizing downtime is crucial to operational effectiveness and optimizing production operations. Of course, when any program aimed at enhancing overall efficiency goes down, lines go down, workers stand around and the company loses money.
Let’s take a look at the role of cleaning and sanitizing and its importance in the overall scheme of operating efficiencies. In today’s food industry, one would have to search far and wide to find someone who does not acknowledge the importance of cleaning and sanitizing as an essential prerequisite program for food safety and for product quality. Oh, one might meet the occasional Luddite, such as a quality manager I once met whose attitude about sanitation was summed up in this quote: “Why worry about sanitation, we are cooking our products.”