The process of cleaning blenders, called “energizing”, has been an industry standard for some time. While energizing achieves the objective of creating a clean piece of equipment, the process by which energizing is performed has the ability to cause significant worker safety concerns. Even though injuries don’t happen often, when they do occur, they are typically severe and life-altering in nature. As a result of the potential severity of these injuries, PSSI set a goal in 2016 of finding a better way to maintain food safety with quality equipment while keeping employees safe.
Within clients’ facilities PSSI identified 1,411 blenders that were currently being cleaned through energizing. PSSI worked with their customers to design tools that could turn blenders so they could be cleaned without the energizing process. Because no situation is the same, specific tools had to be designed to fit unique machinery needs. In a few cases, where energizing had to remain part of the cleaning protocol, it was made safer with additions of secondary guarding to the equipment.