Baking Pans - cleaning?

I work in a bread/roll manufacturing plant. Pans that are used are not cleaned (as in with water, sanitizer, etc.). They are brushed off for any debris that may be on them (mostly crumbs, seeds, etc.). In the event that we have a pan jam on a conveyor and the operators need to clear it, pans are removed and if nothing is close by, placed on the floor. These are empty pans, so no product is involved. Current practice is to place the pans back on the line and use them. I am questioning this, but unsure of what should be done.

Thoughts?

How are the pans stored at the end of the run/shift?  This may be where the real hazard arises.

If they are stacked on top of each other as is common practice, then the risk obviously increases as the base of the pan that has touched the floor is now touching the top, food contact surface of the pan.

We are going through the same thing and looking at building a little stand / rack for pans to be stored on prior to return to the conveyor, so they don't need to be placed on the floor.

Pans that are not being used, are stacked, but the bottom of one pan never actually touches the top of the pan that it is sitting on. There is approximately a 1/8"-1/4" gap between them. In some cases, a table/rack/something! would work to place pans on as they are removing them from the line. In other areas, there isn't much space to have a table or anything for them to be able to place the pans on. Even with a table/rack, still unsure what to do if a pan does in fact end up on the floor.

Good morning,

As indicated by others, there needs to be a designated place (preferrably a low table or rack with wheels) to put the pans onto and keep them off of the floor.  Establish the work expectations and then instruct the employees to follow those guidelines.  I would consider any item on the floor as needing to be cleaned and sanitized prior to reuse.  A designated table or rack needs to be handy for all to use and use it even when you are not watching them.  The issue would be that the bottom pan on the floor is dirty and multiple restacking would make more pans 'dirty'.  Also consider any wet cleaning in the area near the pans currently being stored on the floor could cause the whole stack to be 'soiled' with overspray of water.

Keith

I think there needs to be a change in how things are done.  Yes, that may have been the 'way it's always been' but stacking pans on the floor, not having any cleaning/sanitizing step, and simply re-using the pans isn't acceptable.

You do need racks, you do need to get a documented cleaning schedule and you will have to make a big change in your operations.

Good Luck! It isn't insurmontable!

Pans aren't stacked on the floor when not in use - they are on carts. The only time that they are on the floor is in the process of clearing a jam on the line. Their is a huge opportunity for training and educating operator's in regards to food safety. I have just started (on my 3rd week) my roll at the facility and am in the process of evaluating current practices. Bread/Roll pans is one thing I don't have much experience with and due to them not being wet cleaned, I wasn't sure of a good process for doing 'cleaning them' in the event that one does get put on the floor. 

At this point, a process of cleaning/sanitizing the contaminated pans will be developed and implemented.

Thanks for all the feedback!

 There is a relatively simple fix for this problem. You can purchase sheet pan dollies from almost any restaurant or bakery supply house. If there is room on the floor for a sheet pan then there is room for the dolly. They make sheet pan washers specifically for bakeries. They can wash, rinse, sanitize and dry 20+ trays in apx. 5 minutes. I would recommend that you set your trays up on a cycle that they all get washed x amount of times per week/month based on your risk analysis. A would also recommend that you set up a policy that any tray that hits the floor is washed prior to being used again. 

Kevin

many many years ago i worked at a huge bakehouse in Australia.

as the baking pans are being subjected to intense heat, they are baked clean... of course they dont look clean, but you would be hard pressed to find anything other than living yeast bacteria on them.

think of it like a healthy garden.. you can either go organic and have no pests, or you can use chemicals and be forever finding ways to keep the pests off your garden while not causing toxic chemical contamination.

the good bacteria will limit the bad bacteria.

personally i was kind of disgusted at the amount of what i consider to be "built up gunk" on the conveyor lines in the ovens and coolers, but nevertheless we never hear of anyone getting food poisoning from fresh bread (celiacs not included of course).

the oven and cooler racks were cleaned about once every 3 months.. simply by using air jets to blast the lumps of old green floury gunk off the shelves.

even now 25 years later i still dont each much bread, not because of what i thought was unhygienic. but because of the smell of bread... when youve smelled a million loaves youve smelled them all.

the important consideration is that the HACCP process suits the product, and it is not possible to use the same process for vastly different products, good product knowledge is required to understand the nuances of the quality system that is used.

Hi! I can see it is an old post... but interested in hearing a general SOP for cleaning bakery pans? We have SO many pans, and they end up being cleaned really really often. I think too much, which I know is weird coming from someone in quality. 

The reason I have an issue with it, is because I think it is making the trays wear faster than they should. We have had the odd fleck of aluminium that comes off the trays. I can see there are some people with baking experience in this thread :)

The increased cleaning is all about allergen control- we switch between gluten free and gluten quite often. I need to confirm it, but I think they trays also go through a chlorine solution (with aluminium protection) in our dishwasher so I think that might be wearing them down faster.

Are the bakers saying, we can get away with a wet clean once every say... 6 months? :D

Because that would just be ultimate awesome! What do you use to brush down the dry soils?

Thanks in advance!