Many food companies are trying to be cognizant of their environmental impacts. While focusing on things like recycling and energy savings are important food Safety and sustainability are interlinked when it comes to water usage, and with at least 40 states anticipating water shortages in the next decade the need to conserve water is critical.
Water Waste and Hand Hygiene
In a typical food plant, hygienic zones will be filled with industrial sinks and wash fountains. These types of sinks are not built with water savings in mind. Often the faucets will be triggered by foot pedals at the bottom of the units. When a worker first approaches the sinks, they’ll typically trigger the faucet immediately. Meanwhile they’ll be lathering their hands with soap after a brief rinse, and during all this time (ideally longer than 20 seconds) the water will continue to run down the drain without contacting their hands. If a facility is using a wash fountain, then multiple faucets will be running even if there is only one person washing their hands. 
Gallons of water are being wasted hourly at facilities using these large industrial sinks. Luckily, there is an alternative to industrial sinks and wash fountains for food safety and sustainability with the introduction of automated handwashing stations.
Learn more about sustainable hand hygiene!
Automated Hand Hygiene for Food Safety and Sustainability
With CleanTech® Automated Hand Washing Stations, handwashing time is cut in half, and CleanTech® uses only 0.6 gallons of water during each hand hygiene event. Plus, during an automated hand wash, every drop of water is used to ensure proper pathogen removal. No water is wasted just going down the drain! Each automated hand wash is also more effective than a manual hand wash with 99.9% of harmful pathogens removed during the 12 second wash cycle.
Don’t let manual hand wash sinks and wash fountains undo your corporate food safety and sustainability goals. One of our customers, Kern Meat Company, have even been recognized as award winners for food safety and noted how they’ve cut their water use in half with CleanTech®:
"Kern Meat Company also invested in two handwashing stations for its processing room that Dr. Sherman says delivers a safer and cleaner handwashing solution than traditional soap and water. The stations achieved the same efficacy in 12 seconds as handwashing reached in 20 seconds. The handwashing stations also provided some energy savings. At the former plant, which was five times smaller than the new one, the company consumed about 400 gallons of water per day for employee handwashing; the new stations cut that in half." – Food Quality and Safety Magazine
Learn more about why automation is the best for food safety!
