Don’t wait until the end of the day to start clean up. It should be a continuous process using your entire workforce.
The drill in most food processing operations is to run one or two shifts followed by a clean up. Clean up may last a full shift or it may be less. These processors usually employ a crew that comes in at the end of the last operating shift to start clean up. In the past, the clean up crew often included those with low seniority on the union scale, new employees and people from the local prisons on work furloughs. Too many processors ended up placing food safety in the hands of the least trained employees. Fortunately this practice is not as common as it once was. Today, the importance of clean up and safe operations is acknowledged by good managers. Now clean up crews are given good training, better wages and “a pat on the back.”