You want us to clean..how?

[Kyree]

Kyree - Whew. I was worried there for a minute but you have eased my worries a bit. I do know that sometimes, the criticals are for more serious stuff (like using out-of-date food or whatever). Thanks for the inside info.

No prob the crits /can/ be for serious stuff, but 99% of the time it's the health person being an anal monkey. Yes, I know it's their job to be, but still. It'd be nice to see one in a good mood, ever.

What you have to look for are things that are important. A bin without a lid isn't a problem most of the time, and some places can be done for that. Spoiled meat still in the chiller is a major risk.

Rapscallion

Exactly Couldn't have said it better.

[icmedia]

Leaving a film of antibacterial will continue to kill bacteria that arrive on the surface, but will also transfer the antibacterial substance to foodstuffs placed on the surface.

At least in two states (Ohio, where I currently reside, and Pennsylvania, where I attended culinary school) the type of sanitizer that can be used on a surface coming in contact with cooked or raw foods is required by law to be both antibacterial (which is really the definition of "sanitized," anyways) and safe for human consumption. In other words, it must kill germs upon contact, as well as be safe to rub off on your sliced-up meat/cheese/onions/etc. without making you sick.

I only know this to be the law in those two states, but I was taught in both states' safety & sanitation certification courses that this was the industry standard. Most big, corporate, multi-chain food service companies (like "Yum! Brands," who own Taco Bell/KFC/Long John Silver's, and "Darden Restaurants," who own Red Lobster/Olive Garden/Bahama Breeze/Smokey Bones) even have this same sanitizer packaged and branded with their companies' logos for distribution by their commisaries worldwide. I also know for a fact that GFS, SysCo, RDP Foodservice, and other major food distributors carry this product for exactly the use indicated above, so I assume that it is probably required by law in at least a few other states. Outside of the U.S., I have no idea what the laws are.

As far as the comment goes about sanitizer not cleaning up caked-on or dried grease and/or food...well, the point is kind of to make sure grease and/or food never get caked on or dried up on your equipment. You should be constantly removing large debris during equipment use, and using sanitizer to wipe down equipment regularly (as in every time you use it or every time you switch between types of food). At the end of the day (or other point at which no food will come into contact with said surface for several hours), you are permitted to use a harsher cleaning product, such as a degreaser or bleach-based cleaner.

As far as using hot, soapy water goes... regular soap kills absolutely no germs. You can literally pour standard soap all over a salmonella or e-coli inundated surface, wipe it off, and have killed a grand total of zero germs. That would make it clean, yes...sanitized? No. Hot water does nothing unless it reaches at least 160, which would not stay that hot for much longer than it took to carry it to your workstation. Nor would it be very prudent (or comfortable) to stick your hand in water that hot to soak a rag or paper towel.

Some hardass health inspectors will mark a violation for using a dirty towel...which is (in some of their slanted views) basically any towel that has ever been used before, at any time. That explains the paper towels, even though my own experience tells me what a pain in the ass that must be. Technically, no law I know of exists that says anything about rags that are unclean, only rags that are unsanitary (like I said before, clean=removing surface dirt while sanitary=killing bacteria).


Sorry if I sounded a bit preachy there, but I read a few things in this discussion that I thought I could address.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I can see how paper towels would be more sanitary than reusing damp rags all day, but if things don't get a thorough cleaning on a regular basis, I can't imagine that that would be kosher*.



*sorry, couldn't help myself

[Aethian]

For the OP, when i use to work in a nursing home that was doing this they were fined and almost closed because of their cost saving measures.

So yes, report it, you might be saving the life of someone who might get contaminated meat from a improperly 'sprayed' surface. Either look online or look on the certificate located somewhere in the deli.

[Javarod]

Or how many failures, we had one here in Phoenix that got something like 13 failures, and had 30 days to clean up their act. Next month they got 12.

Now, as to the matter at hand, I can give you two reasons for this policy:

1) There's been cases of cleaning products served to customers by accident, typically in fast food, its rare, but it does happen. This could be an overreaction to that.

2) Ifn you don't change the water often enough, all you're doing is wiping germs onto what you're cleaning. This could be the reason, and it could be handed down by the health department or misinterpreted, but whichever, this isn't a good idea.