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Strict cleanliness and hygiene standards apply when working with and selling food. In addition to consumer safety, professional and efficient cleaning leaves an overall positive impression and helps to maintain hygiene and safety when working in a bakery or café. However, there are some specific tasks that need to be completed that require the appropriate technology and approach.
These days, bakeries and pastry shops are no longer just places to buy a loaf of bread or a cake. They often also feature coffee to-go, custom birthday cakes, or an attached café. It is therefore all the more important that facilities ensure hygiene within the bakery or café through appropriate hygiene measures to guarantee a pleasant environment for their customers.
The surface of the glass sales counter needs to be cleaned periodically, as fingerprints or other dirt become visible very quickly. To remove them, you can use a glass cleaner and a microfiber cloth. If the surfaces are straight rather than curved, a professional window cleaning kit can simplify and speed up the work. If a disinfectant is used, do not wipe the surfaces down after application in order to maintain the disinfecting properties.
Only clean surfaces can be disinfected. If there are other contaminants on the surface, the disinfectant will concentrate on them, and its performance will no longer be guaranteed. This should be kept in mind when cleaning and disinfecting surfaces in the bakery that come into contact with skin.
When it comes to cleaning the other side of the counter, cleaning techniques used when handling food play a significant role. A wet/dry vacuum can be used to easily and quickly remove dry, loose food from the display counter. When wet cleaning, use alternating alkaline and acidic cleaning agents to reliably remove the breeding ground for microorganisms. After cleaning and disinfecting, rinse with clean water to ensure that no residue remains.
A chemical-free alternative is to work with commercial steam cleaners. They reliably eliminate germs, bacteria, and viruses. This is because hot steam up to approximately 212°F and with a pressure of up to 58 psi emerges from the nozzle in very fine droplets. Read the manufacturer's instructions thoroughly to ensure proper use.
Eating healthy and living healthy is essential, and people are placing more importance on what lands on their plates. Whether it is fresh produce from the farmers market or a quick, healthy midday snack on the go from the local café, one thing is sure: the food hygiene standards must be excellent. The basis for this is a clean and hygienic work environment.
In addition to daily bakery cleaning, it is important to align with bakery HACCP criteria. Basic hygiene measures in bakeries and pastry shops include temperature controls, employee hygiene, and the detailed preparation and implementation of cleaning and hygiene plans.
Dough residue, lye, salt, spices, sugar, dust, or flour: the types of dirt that accumulate during cleaning in a bakery are many and varied. Especially in larger operations, it must be determined if there is a risk of fine flour dust exploding—for example, Zone 22 is defined as a hazardous area. If this is the case, then the wet/dry vacuums used must be ATEX certified.
In all other cases, it is sufficient if the vacuums used comply with the DIN EN 14460:2007-07 standard. This way, any explosion remains inside the device and does not pose a hazard to the outside. All vacuums used in the food sector must be dust class M in order to effectively remove fine dust from the air when cleaning the bakery. To prevent the filter from clogging, automatic filter cleaning should be provided.
Heat-resistant wet/dry vacuums ensure that the hot oven can be immediately cleared of debris and dough residue, making it ready for the next batch. Special bakery vacuums are equipped with appropriate accessories, which include a heat-insulated suction tube, highly heat-resistant suction hoses, and an oven nozzle with a scraper. This allows the oven chamber to be cleaned in just a few seconds, so there is hardly any loss of heat.
Floor tiles in food processing areas of the bakery must meet a certain slip resistance (R-value) to ensure a safe working environment. Dry cleaning with a vacuum should be done regularly to remove loose dirt. However, dirt particles settle very quickly in the depressions of the floor, which is why wet cleaning must also be on the bakery's everyday cleaning schedule. Various machines can support this, although it is important to remove the dirt without leaving any residue in the recesses as well:
Day after day, vacuums, sweepers, and floor scrubbers are used to keep grocery stores, industrial plants, warehouses, or hotels clean. They pick up vast amounts of dirt and thereby improve the visual impression, create a hygienic environment, contribute to value retention, and avoid slip hazards by ensuring slip resistance. But in order to continuously achieve top cleaning performance and maximize service life, it is not enough to simply empty the dirt container after the work is done. Here is a guide on how to care for and maintain cleaning machines.
The cleaning agents used must be food-grade—i.e., they must not contain any substances that are classified as a food safety concern. When cleaning the bakery oven, care must be taken to alternate between acidic and alkaline agents to safely remove germs. After cleaning, rinse with clear water.
Porcelain tiles are an attractive and very popular flooring material. They are robust, slip-resistant, and do not absorb much moisture.
Whether it's work surfaces, molds, or vats, surfaces in the bakery also need to be thoroughly cleaned. Depending on the dough and the degree of buildup, various techniques can be used. Abrasive pads or brushes can be used for manual cleaning, although the cleaning agents used must also be food-compliant in this case. Alternatively, a steam cleaner can be used, which makes it easier to clean surfaces, especially those in hard-to-reach places such as rubber folds or crevices.
In addition to these two methods, dry ice blasting has established itself as an effective alternative, especially since there is a compact solution available for smaller facilities that produces dry ice at the touch of a button. The frozen CO2 used sublimates into gas immediately after hitting the surface, which is why, unlike other particle blasting methods, no residue remains. The cleaning performance is high and quickly achieved.
For commercial bakery cleaning, dry ice blasting is an efficient technique for basic facility cleaning. However, in this case, dry ice must be purchased prior to cleaning.
Many bakeries now have a café attached, which also has its own cleaning needs. In addition to sweeping and mopping, cleaning and sanitizing tables after each guest has become more important. In addition, there is the maintenance of industrial dishwashers or coffee machines to consider. This equipment should be cleaned and maintained according to the manufacturer's instructions and hygiene regulations. In addition, other surfaces and hard-to-reach areas can be reliably and hygienically cleaned with a steam cleaner.
The same HACCP bakery cleaning and hygiene measures apply to any food business. However, there is one special area that, depending on the size of the operation, has yet another set of requirements: a walk-in freezer or walk-in cooler. A scrubbing machine can be used to clean the floor here, provided the cleaning agent is able to withstand temperatures below freezing.
Low temperatures, high importance: walk-in coolers can be found in numerous facilities—and where they are found, they are generally integral to operations. In hotels and restaurants, industrial production plants, or grocery stores, walk-ins provide the correct conditions for storing perishable and temperature-sensitive goods. For the cooler to function perfectly, it requires specialized professional cleaning that reflects these unique conditions.
