ABSTRACT

Clutter; excessive down time; doors, walls and ceilings in disrepair; poor grounds keeping; utensils lying around; and poorly maintained equipment are symptoms of an underlying failure to design the equipment and facility in a manner that builds in food safety or to maintain the equipment and facility properly, yielding a gradual decline in product protection. Typically, small to medium-sized companies focus on parts of the business that directly generate income. It often seems as if there are competing priorities between making a product that makes money and spending money to maintain the facility and equipment that already work and can make a product that makes money. This forms an endless loop, and although this seems like a good strategy at the time, it can lead to a gradual production of conditions that fail to protect the product from physical, chemical, or microbial control. To prevent this from happening, a more balanced approach needs to be applied.