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Three important factors to consider when choosing a commercial cleaning company for your food manufacturing business.

It’s no secret that those in the food
business, be they restaurants, processing facilities, commercial bakeries or abattoirs, face much
more intense scrutiny and risks compared to other businesses. Product recalls
and bad press can permanently affect the health of a food business.  In addition to the specialised cleaning
methods and familiarity with your equipment, you also need to find a commercial
cleaner that can hold up the regulatory obligations you face, many of which can
vary from state to state.

Things like regular scheduled and unscheduled
inspections are a fact of life for food manufacturing, processing and packaging
businesses. There’s good reason for this; poor cleaning and hygiene standards
could result in severe illness for consumers. This does, however, mean that businesses
making food for human consumption will face regulatory risks in addition to the
operational risks of not having adequately cleaned facilities.

For this reason, it’s important to find a commercial cleaner that is not only familiar with your industry, but also accredited to work in the food industry. Here’s some of the things you should look out for when finding a new commercial cleaning team for your food business.

Specialised Cleaning Skills:

Your cleaning team will obviously need to use cleaning chemicals and methods suitable for use near food. A specialised food industry cleaning team will not only grasp specialised cleaning methods; they’ll know when to schedule their cleaning to ensure disruptions to your operations are kept to a minimum.

To improve the workplace health and
safety of your facilities and reduce the likelihood of spills and other
disruptions that can affect your business, you will need a team that is
proactive. As food manufacturing businesses and restaurants are often subjected
to unscheduled inspections, your team should offer regular testing of their own
to ensure your facilities are meeting hygiene standards 100% of the time.

Your cleaning team should assess
every last millimetre of floorspace to determine the unique risks and cleaning
requirements of your facilities. For example, if your internal air-conditioning
vents are close to exposed conveyer belts, a specialised food manufacturing
cleaner will pick up on the fact that your filters will likely require more
regular cleaning. For this reason, we put in place systems, checklists and audit
schedules designed specifically for your facility’s unique requirements.

Trained Professional Cleaners:

Orbit Cleaning are proud to say that all our
cleaning staff are permanent staff, specially trained in commercial cleaning. We
hire people dedicated to the industry, and many of our management team have
commercial cleaning experience themselves.

Having specially trained cleaners is
especially important in the food manufacturing industry, as staff will need to
be trained with specialised skills and become familiar with the facilities they
clean. We assign teams of people to specific facilities, rather than randomly
allocating them to different facilities. This allows our team to get familiar
with your facilities under the supervision of another experienced cleaner. Many
of our clients think of our cleaning team as an extension of your own staff.

Accreditation and Standards:

ISO9001:2015 should be the benchmark
accreditation you look for when searching for a commercial cleaner. This merely
shows that the cleaning business has systems in place to keep up industry
standards that customers expect. It’s a relatively basic requirement, but it
shows a commitment to upholding their standards with some kind of quality
control, like regular audits and staff training.

The accreditation specific to the food
manufacturing industry, and one you are likely familiar with, is Codex
Alimentarius’ Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) accreditation.
The HACCP system identifies hazards specific to the food handling and
manufacturing industry and establishes measures that everyone in the production
process can take to ensure food safety.

Orbit Cleaning possesses both ISO9001:2015 and HACCP accreditation, and we go out of our way to ensure that we stay up to date with the latest innovations in cleaning technology and industry trends to continually improve our services.

Hopefully this article proved useful in helping you find a commercial cleaner for your food business. If you require specialised cleaning services for your business, be it a restaurant, processing plant or other food-handling business, please get in touch with Orbit Cleaning to arrange an inspection and quote from our expert team.