So, as promised, here are the results of a survey of 8 wineries and their sanitation levels presented by Dr. Worobo at a seminar last week. (Click picture to enlarge)
The main takeaway is that no winery is perfect. Floors and drains are the most likely places to find bugs. Bung holes also tend to be pretty filthy, which I guess is to be expected. Still it’s an area that goes overlooked in a bunch of wineries and looks to be a pretty easily removed vector for spoilage orgs. I’ll definitely make sure bung hole cleaning is SOP at Capozzi.
Every winery’s bottling line was impeccable, as were their stainless steel tanks after a good cleaning. Hooray!
Checking Sanitation
The best way to check the cleanliness of your stuff is to do a quick measurement using a pricey but oh-so-convenient luminometer. I uploaded a video of Randy giving a demonstration on one of Rodney Strong’s tanks that had just been cleaned. (I apologize that you’ll have to crane your head to view it for the moment. When I get home I’ll try and fix the video).
Definitely a quick and cool way to check your area for spoilage, keep the workers or yourself honest, and to put your mind at ease. According to Randy they run anywhere from $400 to $2300 bucks.
Randy also mentioned that Ecolab has been working on getting more winery specific products and more knowledgeable reps to better serve the wine industry (Zep - 1-877-I-BUY-ZEP - is another). As part of your relationship with them, they should be able to walk your winery, point out any problems and identify the products and solutions that will help you get your winery spic and span.
And as we all know, a clean bung hole is a godly bung hole. Amen.
