Archived Fear Ye Steritech!

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adcamper92

Food Ave Deviant
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Sep 19, 2012
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Here's for all the Food Avenue people representing!

So Steritech's about to make another round with our store soon. She's due any day now and I'm wondering what she'll try to get us for this time. I know last time we got into some serious trouble with the nozzles on the soda machines. Any advice for this Food Avenue rookie to offer?


I've never actually seen Steritech before, so I'm pretty sure if I had to I could pass their tests, but I'm wondering what others have done to prep for them? Any what have gotten you guys for?
 
When in doubt clean everything. They are payed to look for anything and everything. When they don't find anything wrong, it makes the Steritech rep look like they are missing stuff. So they nick-pick everything.

I know my former store got dinged years ago prior to Steritech for having grease splash on the counter underneath the fryers and grill. The floor drains had mildew and mold just under the grate. Cracked floor tiles. Not having floor rugs in specified slips areas. Dust on top of the oven. Rust in the bottom of freezers and refrigerator drawers that were not being used. Not replacing chipped cutting boards.

Stuff that is supposed to be monitored by Building Support or Cleaning Crew usually got my store several times.
 
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Wipe panel edges inside your ice machine until the towel is white; check Starbux ice bin seams for mold/mildew; clean walls/ceilings of spatters (oil or syrup); chip off accumulated ice in the walk-in; check equipment for cracked/frayed power cords; clean dishwasher of acc hard water deposits; pull out shelves/fixtures to clean behind them; soda fountain nozzles need to be wiped out after soaking in hot sudsy water - follow with sanitzer soak; Starbux milk fridges need to be wiped out from all sides, checking the door gaskets for cracks (we got dinged for that). Scrub all sinks (particularly Starbux).
Just to name a few.
 
I was training in another store last week and Steritech came and did a walk. It was awesome because I got to see how a walk goes before going to my area. Thankfully that store got away with no dings but I have seen quite a few dings over the past years.

-No paper towels in the dispenser for the handwashing sinks
-dusty ceilings
-having jewelry on
-boxes of gloves sitting on counter tops facing up
-sanitizer PPM

It seems like a lot of questions they tend to ask too are relevant to pest control and the three step cleaning process - clean/rinse/sanitize
 
I was in SB during a walk-thru; they asked how often sanitizer was changed & how we kept track, how often the rinse sink is cleaned, what attracts pests, temp danger zone.
 
They have holders that you can put on the walls for your gloves. It's a pain though because they never seem to be where you need them most. What my STL suggest is to keep them on their side if you want them on the countertops by where you use them most.
 
They came through our store last week (got a 96 iirc). They did mention some stuff that they were going to start looking for, but I'm not 100% sure what it was. I'm in market and it was something in Target Cafe. Something about lids on containers in the fridge or something? Sorry... guess I'm not much help...
 
These visits from Steritech don't bother the TM's as much as the GSA/GSTL's that oversea Food Avenue in our store, I tend to make a spectacle of it myself. I know that last visit we had a few non-criticals and was really hit with mold/mildew on soda nozzles and something about leaving reisdue from freshness labels on the canisters. Since then they've scheduled me more over at Food Ave more because of my eye for detail and the fact I over-clean things to the extreme.

I've noticed there's a few things that I'm not sure if we're supposed to be doing, but the floor mats they have some broom squeegee type thing and quite frankly I don't know if we're supposed to do anything with that? As for taking a corrective action on the soda nozzles, what do you guys do when you're closing FA and disassemble them? I've let them soak in fresh hot soapy water and I'll do the Three Step process leaving them in a sanitizer mix overnight, but some peer feedback is always appreciated.

And maybe this one's a long shot but I don't suppose there's like a book for TM's to see what Steritech looks for like an ultimatum guide.

Anyways, thank you guys for all your help so far. Working to improve FA.
 
For the soda nozzles, I either let them soak in sanitizer overnight then rinse in the morning, or soda water (if there was a soda water option).
 
There should be cleaning guides from Johnson-Diversy but there's NO guide as to what Steritech will ask.
Ours used to be fairly predictable until last month & suddenly our sister stores have told us horror stories about completely different visits.
Additional queries: How often are thermometers tested? daily, when first opened, whenever dropped. How long do you hold pH strips in sanitizer to test it? 10 seconds How many PPM (parts per million) should sanitizer be? 200
What do you do when you see a pest? Notify the LOD & log it in the pest log. Do NOT chase it down & squash it (like I did).
 
There should be cleaning guides from Johnson-Diversy but there's NO guide as to what Steritech will ask.
Ours used to be fairly predictable until last month & suddenly our sister stores have told us horror stories about completely different visits.
Additional queries: How often are thermometers tested? daily, when first opened, whenever dropped. How long do you hold pH strips in sanitizer to test it? 10 seconds How many PPM (parts per million) should sanitizer be? 200
What do you do when you see a pest? Notify the LOD & log it in the pest log. Do NOT chase it down & squash it (like I did).

I wish they would ask easy stuff like that! They stopped asking the cookie case question and asked me something I didn't know the answer to!

:(
 
For the longest time I didn't know what "ppm" was and I've accidentally been putting 200 degrees in that slot...oops
 
So Steritech's about to make another round with our store soon. She's due any day now and I'm wondering what she'll try to get us for this time. I know last time we got into some serious trouble with the nozzles on the soda machines.

Oh jeeze, what was wrong with your soda nozzles?!

Hmm... trying to think of things we've gotten dinged for to help you out. Sanitizer, sanitizer, sanitizer. It's GOT to be at 200ppm and I BELIEVE 75-85 degrees (someone double check me here!). The sanitizer looses potency pretty quickly and the temp changes quickly... our LODs say the sanitizer can hold for 2 hours before being changed, but when I'm working SB I touch it up every hour. I'm not going to be responsible for a red store!

Ummm... what else. Grease traps. General cleanliness, really. And BE ABLE TO ANSWER THEIR QUESTIONS! If you see a "pest", you need to alert the LOD ASAP (and you may or may not want to include the noting it in the pest log... that would be the LODs job.) Know the wash-rinse-sanitize steps. No jewelery on anyone except a bare wedding band! And checkkkkk datessssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Make sure everything is dated properly!

Oh, and nothing back there that shouldn't be back there. No team member drinks, no tylenol, etc. Obvious, but just saying.
 
So Steritech's about to make another round with our store soon. She's due any day now and I'm wondering what she'll try to get us for this time. I know last time we got into some serious trouble with the nozzles on the soda machines.

Oh jeeze, what was wrong with your soda nozzles?!

Probably spewing out black gunk. That happened to us and we got our a$$es royally chewed out for that. We just had to get new nozzles because we couldn't get them clean no matter what we did to them.
 
What do you do when you see a pest? Notify the LOD & log it in the pest log. Do NOT chase it down & squash it (like I did).

This guy was training for ETL (for another store in my state) at my store and was walking FA when I got there one morning. I had a friendly little chat with him and he was marking off stuff on his clipboard when I see this f**king monster sized cockroach walking around on the counter.

Me: "Uh, hey you're training for ETL right?"
ETL Trainee: "Yeah, that's right. Why?"
Me: "Well, there is an LOD procedure I'm supposed to have you do."
ETL T: "Oh... Okay... Sure I can do it, what's up?"
*point to counter*
ETL T: "OH S**T!"
*wails his clipboard all over the counter making sure he's killed the roach*
ETL T: "Yeah, I'll go ahead and report this and file a work order for this. Thanks for the heads up!"
*he cleans the counter and his clipboard and leaves*

Easily the funniest time I've spent with an ETL on the clock.
 
Main things are that foods are kept at proper temps (cold foods below 40, hot foods above 140), nothing set directly on the floor (up on racks), no personal effects/food in the area, surfaces kept clean, towels/gloves well-stocked, all consumables are dated & FIFOed, logs/charts dated & signed off, dining area cleaned regularly & so on.
 
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