Sanitation Standard Operating Procedures is the common name, in the United States, given to the
sanitation
Sanitation refers to public health conditions related to clean drinking water and treatment and disposal of human excreta and sewage. Preventing human contact with feces is part of sanitation, as is hand washing with soap. Sanitation systems ...
procedures in food production plants which are required by the
Food Safety and Inspection Service
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is the public health regulatory agency responsible for ensuring that United States' commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg pro ...
of the
USDA
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...
and regulated by 9 CFR part 416 in conjunction with
21 CFR part 178.1010. It is considered one of the prerequisite programs of
HACCP
Hazard analysis and critical control points, or HACCP (), is a systematic preventive approach to food safety from biological, chemical, and physical hazards in production processes that can cause the finished product to be unsafe and designs mea ...
.
SSOPs are generally documented steps that must be followed to ensure adequate cleaning of product contact and non-product surfaces. These cleaning procedures must be detailed enough to make certain that
adulteration
An adulterant is caused by the act of adulteration, a practice of secretly mixing a substance with another. Typical substances that are adulterated include but are not limited to food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, fuel, or other chemicals, that ...
of product will not occur. All HACCP plans require SSOPs to be documented and reviewed periodically to incorporate changes to the physical plant. This reviewing procedure can take on many forms, from annual formal reviews to random reviews, but any review should be done by "responsible educated management". As these procedures can make their way into the public record if there are serious failures, they might be looked at as public documents because they are required by the government. SSOPs, in conjunction with the Master Sanitation Schedule and Pre-Operational Inspection Program, form the entire sanitation operational guidelines for food-related processing and one of the primary backbones of all food industry HACCP plans.
SSOPs can be very simple to extremely intricate depending on the focus. Food industry equipment should be constructed of sanitary design; however, some automated processing equipment by necessity is difficult to clean. An individual SSOP should include:
* The equipment or affected area to be cleaned, identified by common name
* The tools necessary to prepare the equipment or area to be cleaned
* How to disassemble the area or equipment
* The method of cleaning and sanitizing
SSOPs can be standalone documents, but they should also serve as work instructions as this will help ensure they are accurate.
Sanitary accessories
To assure thorough sanitation, the use of the following items (and others) may be necessary:
* Alkaline
steel wool
*
Detergent
A detergent is a surfactant or a mixture of surfactants with cleansing properties when in dilute solutions. There are a large variety of detergents, a common family being the alkylbenzene sulfonates, which are soap-like compounds that are more ...
*
Dry ice blasting
Dry-ice blasting is a form of carbon dioxide cleaning, where dry ice, the solid form of carbon dioxide, is accelerated in a pressurized air stream and directed at a surface in order to clean it.
The method is similar to other forms of media bla ...
Food Standards Agency Report, Microchem Bioscience Limited, 19 September 2004
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* Potable water
* NAV-CO2
Non-flammable alcohol vapor in carbon dioxide systems (NAV- system) were developed in Japan in the 1990s to sanitize hospitals and ambulances.
Application
The NAV- uses CO2 ( carbon dioxide) as a propellant to dispense a 58% isopropyl alcohol ...
system
* Sanitizer
A disinfectant is a chemical substance or compound used to inactivate or destroy microorganisms on inert surfaces. Disinfection does not necessarily kill all microorganisms, especially resistant bacterial spores; it is less effective than st ...
* Soap
Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are use ...
* Vapor steam cleaners
Vapor steam cleaners or steam vapor systems are cleaning appliances or devices that use steam to quickly dry, clean, and sanitize surfaces. The steam is produced in a boiler that heats tap water to high temperatures (240–310F/115–155°C) to ...
*HEATING
See also
* Environmental health specialist
* Food and cooking hygiene
* International Association for Food Protection
The International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), founded in 1911, is a non-profit association of food safety professionals based in Des Moines, Iowa. The organization claims a membership of over 3,000 members from 50 nations. The missi ...
* Specified risk material
Specified risk material (SRM) is any of various tissues of ruminant animals that cannot be inspected and passed for human food because scientists have determined that BSE-causing prions concentrate there. The term was referred to in the United K ...
* Standard operating procedure
* Fast food restaurant
A fast-food restaurant, also known as a quick-service restaurant (QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of restaurant that serves fast-food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast-food restaurants is typically ...
References
{{Authority control
Hygiene
United States Department of Agriculture
Food safety
Food technology