Keith Stewart

Background

About Keith Stewart

I started in sanitation about 7 years ago and was intrigues by the role the sanitation team plays in the food manufacturing industry. I was eager to learn the job, because for me cleaning was always a part of my life, but also, to understand how my job would impact the organization as whole if not done right. In food safety, cleaning and sanitation become a single concept, a single thought process. It is easy to lose sight of the function of cleaning as distinguished from disinfection. Without appropriate cleaning, effective disinfection can be difficult or impossible to achieve. Cleaning hard surfaces associated with food processing is becoming increasingly challenging. It is instructive to focus on the role of cleaning hard surfaces as a distinct activity. While this discussion emphasizes the cleaning of food contact surfaces and transfer lines, the principles also apply to noncontact surfaces. Manufacturers sometimes refer to precision cleaning as an ultimate goal. Precision cleaning involves setting up a strict written protocol and then never deviating from it. I have also learned how to created some of these written protocol. Critical cleaning is value added. It is cleaning that, if eliminated, unacceptably raises the risk of harming the product. A critical cleaning process involves using a scientifically based, defendable protocol at the correct point(s). I still have a lot to learn but life it self is a learning process. I was a Business Analysis for 10 years and enjoyed, but the sanitation field is force be reckoned with.