Food producers are always staying on top of what the market needs. And now more than ever, convenience, more packaged foods, and increasing product choices are driving the global market. As these trends continue to grow, so does the oversight on food safety and cleanliness.
It’s been over a decade in the USA since the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was enacted. This major legislative action focused on food safety, cleanliness, clean labels, and more consumer-focused food quality awareness to the forefront.
However, the impact of these changes was felt worldwide, not only for food producers that export to the US marketplace but also highlighted the need for more stringent local and regional laws in how additional oversight and laws were enacted.
With these changes, many sanitation managers struggle to comply with the continually evolving and increasingly stringent food safety standards. To compound their challenges, these changes are occurring by softening global labor pools and increasing labor expenses.
This dynamic has led companies to closely review their sanitation practices and look for better, faster, and more automated ways to clean and sanitize production facilities.
Especially hard hit have been those who require dry processing facilities, such as those making bakery items, snack foods, confections, dry ingredients, powdered drink mixes, seasonings, coffee, and dry pet food. Certain facilities have zero moisture tolerance, so standard wash-down methods aren’t an option.
Traditional ways of cleaning conveyor belts in dry environments have often involved completely removing them and moving them to a wash-down area for hosing down. For in-place cleaning, teams may use scraping, brushing, wiping, vacuuming techniques, and compressed air.
However, these methods are often slow, labor-intensive, and potentially dangerous for workers and compound the challenges sanitation managers feel amidst rising labor costs and reduced labor pools.
As a result, processors have been turning to clean-in-place technologies, like “dry” steam, to more effectively remove soils, mold, mildew, and other microbiology.
These solutions are eco-friendly and effective for routine or deep cleaning and are particularly beneficial in dry environments where water is avoided due to their extremely low moisture content.
Additionally, automated solutions like conveyor belt cleaning provide a much more cost-effective solution to belt removal. Cleaning and sanitation times are reduced dramatically.
Goodway Technologies provides cutting-edge cleaning and sanitation solutions tailored to meet the stringent requirements of food processing and production facilities, from industrial dry-steam steamers and PureBeltTM clean-in-place automated conveyor belt cleaning systems to specialty vacuums like explosion-proof and HEPA filtering and surface sanitation systems.
Our solutions not only expedite the cleaning process but also enhance safety and cost-effectiveness, aligning seamlessly with the needs of sanitation teams.
Visit Goodway.com to learn more about our cleaning and sanitation solutions for food processing and production facilities and schedule a free on-site demo.
