I recently had the chance to revisit the work station where my hospitality career began. The pleasures, along with the challenges, of the pot and pan area came streaming back. One pleasure was taking a mountain of dirty and contaminated pots, pans, and utensils and transforming it into clean and sanitary wares ready to go back into service. Another pleasure was when the shift was over and I could say “good night” to an empty but clean pot and pan sink area.

The process of manual warewashing is part science, part art. The science aspect has changed somewhat since my introduction to warewashing. Thirty-plus years ago, I was shown a bottle of dishwashing detergent (and encouraged to “not use too much”), a gallon of iodine-based sanitizer, and a measuring cup. I was told to fill the sink to the line on the basin and add one full measure of sanitizer. Tools included a basket of green scrub pads, stiff brushes, and metal wire-based scrubbing balls.

The science, or at least the setup, at the threebay sink has improved. Sinks have power soaking basins. Chemical companies supply automatic dispensing units for their products that are designed to dispense the most efficient concentration of detergent or sanitizer and leave the guesswork out of the equation. Green pads are still our friends, and they have now been joined by brown ones. We have a larger inventory of chemicals and improved technology, but we still need to rely on consistent application and monitoring of those chemicals while exercising a generous amount of elbow grease.

The primary goal of a manual warewashing operation is to process the pots and pans—the wares—in a manner that leaves them clean and sanitary, while using the least amount of chemicals and human energy and maintaining the integrity of the surfaces being manipulated.

Consider these safe warewashing guidelines:

• To prevent excessive use of chemicals and related residues, dispensing units for both detergents and sanitizers must be regularly monitored and recalibrated.
  
• Aggressive scrubbing with pads and brushes is needed, but any application that scratches the surfaces of wares makes them harder to clean and sanitize in the future.
  
• Pre-scrape and pre-soak to loosen soils. This is the most critical step in the process, as we must remove gross soils before we place pans in the wash bay. A four-bay sink set-up with the first sink for presoaking may be the best design.
  
• Change wash water and rinse water often. Train staff to note the signs of fats and oils floating on the top of the detergent solution. Carrying these soils into the rinse bay reduces efficacy of the sanitizer in the third tank.
  
• Sanitizers are generally ineffective in the presence of food soils (fats, proteins, sugars, and minerals). Personnel must be reminded that the last bay in the sink, the sanitizer, does no good if the wares are dirty, including thin films of fats or oils that may be carried over from the rinse bay.
  
• Detergents carried into the sanitizer bay change the pH of the solution and make the sanitizer less effective, so be sure to monitor the rinse bay.
  
• Both detergents and sanitizers are temperature sensitive. They work best within an optimal temperature range. Regularly verify the temperatures of detergent and sanitizers as they are dispensed, using a calibrated thermometer.

We should all spend a few minutes at the sink “busting some suds.” It is a refreshing reminder of how much hard work—and good training—it takes to consistently process dirty and contaminated wares into clean and sanitary ones.

Norm Faiola, Ph.D., is associate dean and associate professor, Department of Nutrition and Hospitality Management, Syracuse University. Email Dr. Faiola with questions or comments: nafaiola@syr.edu.