Keep your ship clean

Keep it clean.

I’ll never forget speaking with a store manager a few years ago about sanitation. In all the years I’ve managed and supervised produce departments, it was standard policy to keep the produce department well-scrubbed and sanitized on a regular basis. So out of curiosity, I wondered while speaking to the manager how much things had changed.

I asked, for example, is the wet rack still completely torn down each week, cleaned and re-assembled?

“Oh heavens no,” she said. “But we clean four feet of it every week. So that’s all right.”

Actually, it isn’t all right.

Those wet racks take a beating each week. Underneath all the leaf items, the broccoli, and more, all the debris and mud wash away from the vegetables. Each week there’s a considerable amount of gunk that accumulates below, and a weekly cleaning is the only way to keep the rack from getting completely out of control. With the constant cycle of misting systems, this is the single biggest case in the grocery store that really needs a regular scrubbing.

Regular cleaning maintains an odor-free and safe sales environment.

This means following a monthly schedule of breaking down a single big fixture or two. Stripping down the tables, cleaning the surface, and covering the table with fresh, clean matting. Isn’t this what you want to display your fresh produce upon?

As the monthly schedule should include some big fixtures, a weekly schedule also should be included.

The weekly produce department cleaning schedule should include tasks such as sweeping out and sanitizing the walk-in cooler. Ideally, the prep tables should be cleaned, the back room cleaned, and all equipment cleaned such as crisping trays.

And the wet rack? That’s a big one. One night each week it should be completely pulled and cleaned. Not once a quarter, not once a month. But every week. Every inch of it.

When summer approached, it seemed the excuses for not maintaining a clean produce department gained steam. “We just don’t have time. ... We’re just sooo busy.”

Yes, you do. No, you’re not.

A good produce manager has to think about sanitation as just as an important part of the department as stocking and ordering. Build some element of cleaning into your daily tasks. This way you can keep up with what needs done infrequently (the big quarterly jobs); what needs cleaned semi-infrequently (the monthly, rotating fixture schedule); what needs cleaned every week (like the wet rack — did I mention the wet rack?); and what needs cleaned and tidied up every day (or on an ongoing basis, such as mirrors, signs, chrome strips, scale pans and more).

A clean ship is a happy ship. It’s also a safe and attractive and profitable produce department.

Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His 40 years’ experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions. E-mail armandlobato@comcast.net.

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