The Importance of Equipment Sanitation at Your Food Processing Facility

Your food processing operations are a well-oiled machine. And speaking of well-oiled machines, your processing equipment is not only the lifeblood of your production, it can be the lifeblood for pests without proper attention.

Your equipment is an important investment that you need to keep investing in with stringent sanitation protocols. Clean, well-maintained equipment lasts longer and is less likely to present an attractive survival spot for pests. Pests – especially cockroaches, ants and rodents – can and will sandwich themselves in the tight concealed spaces your equipment can supply and sustain themselves with organic buildup.

That means equipment sanitation is a key component to your pest control solution:

1. Decent Dining – Sure your final product is food-grade material, but for pests, any organic matter is ample. They can find food and moisture buildup on mixers, blenders, batching and dispensing equipment.
2. Convenient Cover – Squeezing machines into tight spaces may maximize your operations, but it makes it very hard to sufficiently clean and sanitize and gives pests an opportune hiding spot.
3. Happily Humid – The drains under your equipment are susceptible to organic buildup. And with the prolonged heat of running equipment, they make for a marvelously moist environment where pests thrive.

Though regularly cleaning your equipment may seem like a daunting task, it pays off in the long run. (Want to check your sanitation acumen? Take our 15-question quiz on food safety and sanitation.) Keep your employees on the lookout for any suspicious activity and make sure they do more than just a surface-clean. To learn more about places within your facility that may be pest-friendly, download our free report: Outside In: Mapping Food Processing’s Pests Hot Spots.

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