Cleaning Produce Washing Equipment: Brush Washer Conveyor System Checklist
Robert Hadad, Extension Vegetable Specialist
Cornell Vegetable Program
As we learn more about reducing microbial risk on the produce farm, more emphasis is being placed on cleaning food contact surfaces. Accessing the hard to reach spaces in wash line equipment is challenging. Most of the equipment was not made to come apart very easily or in an economically efficient manner. The checklist provided here has been developed through hands-on research cleaning equipment as thoroughly as can be measured without doing microbial testing. That level of cleaning is still being researched but, from our work, the level of cleanliness provided here appears to be sufficient.
This step-by-step checklist provides visual guidelines and suggestions for reasonably cleaning your equipment.
The presentations found below provide more photos of the steps of cleaning the conveyor, the brush washer, and the absorber.
Cleaning Produce Washing Equipment: Conveyor Washing System Checklist (pdf; 1693KB)
Presentation: Cleaning the Conveyor in a Brush Washer System (pdf; 2036KB)
Presentation: Cleaning the Brush Washer in a Brush Washer System (pdf; 1833KB)
Presentation: Cleaning the Absorber in a Brush Washer System (pdf; 2114KB)
Upcoming Events
Niagara Region Vegetable Meeting
August 14, 2024
Clarence Center, NY
We'll start this meeting off at Root Down Farm to hear late season disease management updates in peppers and cole crops, plus current best management practices to limit fungicide resistance. Potato variety recommendations and disease control questions in potatoes will be addressed.
Then we'll head to Kreher's beet field to view and discuss alternative weed control technologies. The beet field is an on-farm demonstration of various flame weeding protocols in comparison with stacked tool cultivation equipment. One or two weeding robots will be on-hand for live demonstrations and discussion of the technology's current abilities and future potential. We'll also cover industry updates and a review of late summer disease management in squash.
2.0 DEC credits will be available in categories 23, 1a, and 10.
2024 Chipping Potato Twilight Meeting
August 20, 2024
Dansville, NY
Join us for a brief, on-farm meeting including insect pest updates and viewing of the chipping potato variety trial. 1.0 DEC credits in categories 10, 1a, and 23 will be offered. Dinner follows!