MUNICH — In a webinar during the iba.CONNECTING EXPERTS virtual conference, which took place March 15-17, Karl Thorson, global food safety and sanitation manager at General Mills, offered four steps for food industry engineering, operations and food safety professionals to minimize the impact of sanitation on their business.

These tips are designed to save cost and increase capacity while driving down food safety risk.

1. Labor Reduction — By using a calculation of downtime labor minutes/unit of operation, it’s possible to reduce cleaning time and the number of people involved in the task.
2. Defining Clean Criteria — Work with cross-functional and external partners to create standards of clean and further minimize impacts.
3. Reduce Design Complexity — Consult with design engineers to minimize the complexities through a reduction in surface area or number of parts. Making equipment easier to take apart also reduces the number of staff required, saving time and resources.
4. Provide Access — Improve access with the ability to see and touch all components for easy cleaning and maintenance.