Playing it safe in meat

Food safety concerns have supermarkets stepping up vigilance in meat prep areas, as cleaning equipment evolves to keep pace with demand.

If the 1990s were a wakeup call for meat operations to clean up their acts following the wave of media reports on meat contamination and unsanitary practices in the retail industry, the new millennium seems to have ushered in the era of playing it extra safe--especially when it comes to supermarket standards.

"Sanitation and cleanup of meat and other food preparation departments has definitely remained a high priority in the supermarket industry," says Bob Bova, president of BB & Associates, a supermarket consulting firm based in Fayetteville, Ark., citing the effectiveness of HACCP, which went into effect in the early 1990s. "And I wouldn't be surprised if new standards are developed as the media continues to hype the food safety issue.

Government rules haven't necessarily become stricter, according to John Evans, manager of food machines at foodservice equipment manufacturer Hobart Corp., Troy, Ohio. "It's the individual stores that have become more stringent with their own self-regulated standards and procedures," he says. "Years ago, you used to clean the meat saw once a day. Now, stores will clean it several times a day."

COMING CLEAN

In the typical supermarket meat department, major cleanups are done between one and three times a day, with spot cleanups occurring as needed. At Price Chopper, meat department equipment such as saws, grinders and cutters are disassembled, washed, rinsed and sanitized--as industry standards dictate--before a change of species (e.g., after processing beef or pork and before processing chicken), and usually before the next shift begins, according to Mike Magner, corporate sanitarian for the Schenectady, N.Y-based chain.

"We only do a major cleanup once a day because we refrigerate our meat prep room. But cleaning occurs much more frequently in the deli--about once every four hours," Magner says, adding that deli staff use a three-compartment sink and mechanical dishwashers to perform the wash, rinse and sanitize cycle.

A typical end-of-the-day meat department cleaning cycle begins by sweeping up the floor and wiping off all meat residue from equipment and surfaces by hand. Equipment is disassembled and cleaned, followed by a full spraydown.

EQUIPMENT CONSIDERATIONS

Most supermarkets, like Price Chopper, equip their backrooms with a high-pressure hose sprayer to wash down all surfaces during major cleanups. Magner's stores use a Sanichem wall-mounted system with an attachment that hooks onto the nozzle for applying foam chemicals, which are brushed onto the floors, walls and other surfaces and then rinsed off with hot water. Then, a quaternary ammonia sanitizer (quat) is sprayed onto the surfaces and allowed to air-dry. The equipment parts are left disassembled to be inspected by the department manager in the morning.

Jerry Lekan, co-owner of the Paulina Market, a meat and sausage wholesale retailer in Chicago, follows nearly the same procedure, except twice a day. "We like to use a different sanitizer for each cleanup to make sure we kill every pathogen," Lekan says. His staff may use chlorine during its midday procedure and quat at its day-end cleanup, for example. Lekan has also scheduled his midday cleanup to begin just before the processing of a new species of meat.

When it comes to saws, grinders and other fresh prep equipment, simple disassembly and ease of cleaning has become the main priority for retail clients, says Roger Costello, director of sales and marketing at Hollymatic Corp, a Countryside, Ill.-based manufacturer of meat processing equipment. "The more a manufacturer can do to make the job easier for supermarkets, the more likely the job and the cleaning can be done thoroughly," he says. Costello cites Hollymatic's Mini-Matic tabletop mixer/grinder as an apparatus that can safely grind different types of meat without fear of cross-species contamination.

"We're designing equipment to be quicker to break down, and more able to be sanitized thoroughly," says Hobart's Evans. "In the old days, it took perhaps 40 minutes to clean a grinder. Today, you can do it in 10 minutes."

Staff training has also become a pivotal concern. "Way back when, the butchers did everything, including equipment cleaning," Costello says. "Now, you can't afford to pay them to do that, so you're forced to hire a part-time cleaning staff or an outside sanitation service. "The problem is that they often won't pay the attention to detail needed on cleanup that a butcher or meat manager would. The answer is to train and motivate your employees to do the cleanup and maintenance right."

Evans agrees training can head off potential problems. "Taking the time to train your people properly and paying for the man-hours required to sanitize effectively is a lot less expensive than a lawsuit," he says.

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