Principles of Food Sanitation

sumers spent 10.1% of their 2002 disposable
personal income on food. This is the smallest
proportion of disposable income spent on
food by any nation.
These dynamic and significant changes in
all sectors of the food system highlight the
importance of food safety and sanitation in
ensuring a safe and wholesome food supply.
Each sector needs to work together to assure
a seamless food safety system.
As the food industry has become larger
and more concentrated and diversified and
as new hazards have emerged to cause con-
cern, food safety and sanitary practices have
taken on a new importance in protecting
public health. Many companies are aggres-
sively addressing food safety issues in their
facilities to prevent biological, chemical, and
physical hazards from causing illnesses and
injuries to consumers. These issues have
increased the need for food workers to
understand the critical importance of food
safety and sanitary practices and how to
attain and maintain hygienic conditions in
food facilities. Those who comprehend the
biological basis behind these practices and
the reasons why they are performed will
become more effective in assuring the safety
of the products that they grow, manufacture,
prepare, and sell.

What is sanitation?

The word sanitationis derived from the
Latin word sanitas, meaning “health.”
Applied to the food industry,sanitationis
“the creation and maintenance of hygienic
and healthful conditions.” It is the applica-
tion of a science to provide wholesome food
processed, prepared, merchandised, and sold
in a clean environment by healthy workers;
to prevent contamination with microorgan-
isms that cause foodborne illness; and to
minimize the proliferation of food spoilage

microorganisms. Effective sanitation refers

to all the procedures that help accomplish

these goals.

Sanitation: An Applied Science

Sanitation is an applied science that incor-

porates the principles of design, development,

implementation, maintenance, restoration,

and/or improvement of hygienic practices

and conditions. Sanitation applications refer

to hygienic practices designed to maintain a

clean and wholesome environment for food

production, processing, preparation, and

storage. However, sanitation is more than

just cleanliness. Done properly it can improve

the aesthetic qualities and hygienic condi-

tions of commercial operations, public facil-

ities, and homes. Also, applied sanitary science

can improve waste disposal (see Chapter 12),

which results in less pollution and an improved

ecological balance. Therefore, when effectively

applied, food sanitation and general sanitary

practices have a beneficial effect on our envi-

ronment.

Sanitation is considered to be an applied

science because of its importance to the pro-

tection of human health and its relationship

with environmental factors that relate to

health. Therefore, this applied science relates

to control of the biological, chemical, and

physical hazards in a food environment. San-

itarians must be familiar with all these haz-

ards and thoroughly understand the basic

food microbiology and the organisms that

are most likely to affect human health. By

identifying, evaluating, and controlling haz-

ards and through the effective application of

sanitary practices, a safe and wholesome

food supply can be assured.

Why sanitation?.......................................................................................

More processing is now conducted at

plants near the area of production, a trend

Sanitation and the Food Industry 3