Food Plant Sanitation: Design, Maintenance, and Good Manufacturing Practices

Food safety and quality are primary concerns in the food manufacturing industry. Written by an author with more than 40 years’ experience in the food industry, Food Plant Sanitation: Design, Maintenance, and Good Manufacturing Practices, Third Edition provides completely updated practical advice on all aspects of food plant sanitation and sanitation-related food safety issues. It offers readers the tools to establish a food safety system to help control microbiological, physical, and chemical hazards. Understanding that sanitation is integral to food safety is the foundation for an effective food safety system. Features of this new edition include new photographs, tables, and up-to-date material that better reflect current guidance on food plant sanitation, including additional information on the implementation of FSMA.

The chapters address testing for and control of microorganisms in food manufacturing, including recent challenges in the industry due to pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes. They also offer discussions on biofilms, regulatory requirements from the European Union, allergens, sanitary facility design, and describe proven best practices for sanitation as well as current sanitary requirements and regulatory changes from the FDA and USDA. In addition, the author presents methods for verifying sanitation, and provides greater differentiation of verification versus validation.

The final chapters identify good manufacturing practices for employees and present a comprehensive pest management plan, including control measures and chemical interventions. The book concludes with strategies for preventing chemical and physical food safety hazards. This reference provides a practical perspective for implementing food plant sanitation and safety processes. The author has included, wherever possible, examples of procedures, forms, and documents to help novice food safety and quality professionals develop effective food safety systems.

Michael Cramer is a native of New York State. He started his food career at a turkey processing facility in eastern Pennsylvania while attending West Chester University in West Chester, PA. following graduation in May, 1977 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Health Education, Cramer went back to work in the turkey plant through the remainder of the processing season. He was hired by Swift & Company as Quality Assurance Manager at the facility in April, 1978. In 1979 he was transferred to a larger facility in North Carolina where he gained experience in turkey breeding, feed mill and hatchery operations and further processing. Michael transferred to Swift & Company corporate headquarters in Illinois in 1984 where he held positions as a Production Specialist and Documentation Manager. In the position as Documentation Manager he helped develop ingredient specifications, product manufacturing documents and managed the regulatory process for USDA label submission. He transferred to the Swift-Eckrich plant in downtown Chicago as plant QA Manager in 1989 where he spent two years working with cooked sausages and hotdogs. He returned to the corporate office in Downers Grove, IL in 1991 as QA Director for the Armour food plants of the newly formed Armour Swift-Eckrich. Here he implemented food safety and quality programs for cooked Ready To Eat meat and poultry products, dry and semi-dry sausage and cooked meat and poultry patties.

Michael has been a member of the International Association for Food Protection, and was part of the FSQA team at Ajinomoto Foods that won the prestigious Black Pear Award in 2020. He is also on the editorial board of Food Safety Magazine and has written articles for Food Safety Magazine dealing with Listeria control, Biosecurity, Sanitation and Sanitary Design and Allergens. He was a contributing member of the American Frozen Foods Institute Listeria Working Group. In addition, he has participated in three Food Safety Matters podcasts, conducted two food sanitation webinars and has been a presenter at numerous food safety and quality conferences.