Be keen about a clean routine

Keepin’ it fresh, keepin’ it clean. That may sound like a reasonable slogan for marketing fresh produce — or at least it ought to be.

However, what this aging produce scribe is after today isn’t about the fresh produce at all. It’s about what happens you place the stock. It’s about having a clean slate to work with on a regular basis.

If you’ve followed this column for any length of time, you know how adamant I am when it comes to maintaining an extra-clean produce department. This is the foundation before anything else starts on a dry table, a wet rack or any produce fixture.

To me, an ideal fresh produce stand includes keeping things clean. I suspect many out there feel the same.

The best cleaning regiment is an ongoing one. That means as a produce manager I prepared my to-do lists for merchandising and rotation all right. However, on every daily list I also had a heading that included what needed sanitation attention.

Some days the list was short; other days it was longer. In any case, if it was on the daily list, it got done that day.

I also posted an ongoing sanitation schedule for things to be cleaned on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis.

For example, once a month we would allow a large dry table to sell down on a slow day. (A Tuesday night was ideal.) The closing clerk would pull all product, then early the following morning, we’d scrub that table clean, replace the mats and remerchandise the table for the new ad or for a different look, along with getting the rest of the department set up for the day.

The following month, we’d do another table or a refrigerated case, a backroom cooler and so on. Whenever our store had a surprise inspection by the district manager, produce sanitation was rarely a concern. And store managers? They were far more open to adding labor hours, so long as they saw the results.

At first, the crew wondered why make all that effort? Who keeps a produce department that clean?

We did. After all, a fresh department means areas need cleaning: daily touchups, weekly or monthly medium tasks, or deep-cleaned fixtures all done on a regular, rotating basis. This is a fresh food operation after all, right?

Consider also: What happens during new store and remodel grand openings?

Everything is cleaned to the core, that’s what happens. It’s a beautiful sight to see the refrigerated cases, wet racks, mirrors and dry tables all scrubbed, matted and ready to stock. Every surface is sanitized, and every inch of chrome polished. When the grand opening ribbon is cut, everything just shines.

Which raises the question: Why not try to keep it this way?

Yeah. Why not? Granted, the sheer demand from heavy customer traffic and other rigors of a grocery store means that it is difficult to keep everything as pristine as that grand opening day. But if a produce manager and the crew is trained and disciplined, keeping things clean can be done, no matter what time of year.

Once you’re on a regular cleaning schedule, the repetition of covering daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly chores comes naturally. As you continue, these tasks become easier each round.

Finally, the clean canvas screams out for the star of the show: fresh produce. That means whatever you stock during tasks such as merchandising, rotation, straightening, signing, tends to also get done more efficiently, with employees taking pride in the department, and all with less shrink and better profit margins.

That’s what I’d call cleaning up in all phases of the game.
Armand Lobato works for the Idaho Potato Commission. His 40 years of experience in the produce business span a range of foodservice and retail positions.