Back to Basics: Keeping your grocery store clean
Grocers have a lot to worry about in keeping a store “clean,” from listeria and E.coli outbreaks to virus-causing germs like the flu that quickly collect on frequent customer touchpoints, from shopping carts to freezer grips.
And so with the first article in our Back to Basics”series, experts in microbiology give the 411 on the fight against germs, covering professional cleaning services, best practices and new innovations.
Buyer beware
Grand View Research projects the global contract cleaning services market to rise from US$343 billion in 2023 to $555 billion in 2030. But sanitation consultants and companies aren’t all on the up and up.
“I think a lot of retailers are getting sucked in by their sales pitch,” says Keith Warriner, a Department of Food Science professor at the University of Guelph, a former chef and a lead voice in developing the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations’ Good Hygiene Practices (GHP) and HACCP Toolbox for Food Safety. “There is upselling and misleading claims.”
Best rule of thumb, he says, “is to ask for validation data on the efficacy of treatments to reduce pathogens or other microbes. Reputable companies can back the claims with data, while others not so much.” They will also provide customer references/testimonials.
Nothing magical about them
Products on the market that claim to disinfect surfaces sans cleaners or sanitizing agents, like handheld UV or ozone-generating wands and lights including for PIN pad terminals, are all hocus pocus. “They don’t do anything,” says Warriner. “This is why Health Canada intervened [with warnings] during the pandemic.”
READ: Testing high-touch surfaces in grocery stores for COVID-19: Study
Five steps of sanitization
“I bet some retailers think cleaning and sanitizing is the same thing—it isn’t,” says Warriner. Cleaning is the removal of organic debris, while sanitation reduces germs to a safe level. But for sanitation efforts to be effective, whether at a self-checkout station terminal, conveyor belt or food service counter, dust, food bits, dirt and other matter must be wiped away or will contaminate the sanitizing agent.
Warriner outlines a five-step process.
- Wipe the surface of debris
- Apply a cleaning detergent
- Rinse
- Sanitize (see below)
- Finish with a final rinse
Sanitizing agents
Sanitize with bleach—it’s low cost and most effective. Quaternary ammonium salts (QAS) are easier to use and there is no need for a final rinse, but Warriner says pathogens like listeria can build up resistance. Chlorinated foam (used in the food processing industry) is another option and saves a step because it acts as both cleaning agent and sanitizer.
Don’t use citric acid and vinegar as it’s slow-acting. (Salmonella can survive up to five days in vinegar.) Peracetic acid is popular but hazardous to handle. Once the sanitizer is applied, don’t wipe away too soon! It needs time on the surface to work, at least 30 seconds says Warriner, but preferably longer.
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Keith Warriner -
Michael Gänzle
Too much of a good thing
During the pandemic, reports surfaced in Canada of shoppers and/or their children suffering from blisters, swelling and chemical burns after touching recently disinfected grocery carts. “Highly concentrated sanitizer was being used to wipe shopping carts,” explains Warriner. “This is not only hazardous to customers, but also the employees applying it.”
Eco-friendly sanitizers have flooded the market, but don’t do as good of a job as their chemical counterparts in killing pathogens. Instead, follow manufacturer recommendations around concentration levels because there’s no benefit to going overboard. “For example, a cap full of bleach in 4 liters of water is sufficient,” says Warriner.
Disinfectant wipes
Speaking of shopping carts, offering disinfectant wipes at the front of the store for wiping of handles is a good idea and offers customers peace of mind. However, this high touchpoint shouldn’t be keeping owners up at night. While bacteria can easily be transferred to shopping cart handles, Warriner says “they’re not a good surface for them to grow and thrive on.”
Pathogen-killing innovation
Canadian technology has been pioneered that reduces foodborne pathogens and decontaminates reusable grocery bags. Clean Works and the University of Guelph partnered on a commercialized sterilization unit that uses vaporized hydrogen peroxide, ozone chambers and ultraviolet light to kill 99.99% of pathogens on fresh produce in less than 60 seconds. The unit can be used at any step in the supply chain, including at store. The process also extends shelf life of produce by up to 25%.
READ: As climate change increases the risk of foodborne illnesses, transparency and planning is key
The technology is being used in other ways, too. Clean Works has created a bag and basket sanitizer, which Sobey’s has introduced to customers at a store in Orangeville, Ont., that can sanitize up to four bags in 30 seconds. “Meat and produce infected with salmonella can transfer to and stay on reusable bags,” says Warriner. “You can say, ‘Wash them after every time use’ but most people put them to the side until next week.” This addresses that risk.
Hygienic design
A listeria outbreak in the U.S. this summer is being liked to meats sliced at deli counters. In 2012, Costco’s mechanically tenderized beef in Canada was linked to an outbreak of E.coli.
Michael Gänzle, professor of food microbiology and probiotics at the University of Alberta, says problems arise when grocers aren’t using tenderizers and other equipment that follow hygienic design principles. “You need equipment that is designed for proper cleaning, because an employee isn’t going to spend three hours of their shift dissembling and another three hours reassembling it,” says Gänzle. “Equipment needs to be easy to take apart – every part of it.” This way, pathogens growing in hard-to-reach places can be stopped in their tracks.
As inflation cools and grocers break free from crisis mode, Canadian Grocer's Back to Basics series provides practical advice for the small but crucial aspects of operating a food retail store, like cleanliness, customer service and inventory management. Have a pitch? Send it to digital editor Jillian Morgan at [email protected].
