Procedure for Washing Raw-eaten Leafy Greens

Summary

We wash raw-eaten greens like cut Lettuce or Spinach, in a 2 rinse system. Only the second rinse has sanitizer in it. We spin them dry and pack them, 4 lbs to a case, in boxes with plastic bags liners.

Steps

1. The tanks are filled with clean tap water. Sanitizer is added to the Long Shallow Tanks (second rinse) only. The sanitizer used is Sanidate 5.0. The Long Shallow Tanks each get 2.5 pumps of Sanidate 5.0.
2. Greens are dumped into the Deep Tank and agitated by hand to allow any dirt to wash off and settle to the bottom.
3. Greens are scooped into one or the other of the two Long Shallow Tanks, using the red epoxy coated strainer.
4. In the Long Shallow Tanks, the greens start at one end and are shaken out by hand so that they are floating in a single layer of leaves. As the greens pass through the length of the tank, bad leaves and weeds are picked out. Cleaned greens accumulate a
5. Greens are scooped out of the Long Shallow Tanks using the red epoxy coated strainer and allowed to drain on the edge of the tank.
6. Greens are dumped into the spin dryer and spun for at least 3 minutes.
7. Dried greens are unloaded gently by hand into a new 20"x22" plastic bag held open in a 5 gallon pail sitting on the platform scale. The scale is set to 6.25 lbs to allow 4 lbs of greens and 2.25 lbs of bucket.
8. The weighed plastic bag of finished greens is lifted out of the bucket and placed into a small clean flip top tote
9. Wash water in the tanks must be drained and replaced every 4 hours. Testing of the wash water has demonstrated that even after 4 hours of constant washing of greens, the E. coli levels of the second rinse are zero.