The Paths Through the Workshop

Chapter 16 gave the principle for temperature: cool fast, warm slowly, and never go back.

And contamination? There is a principle of exactly the same shape. This one, though, governs how the workshop itself is built.

What this chapter takes is how the workshop is put together, and in what order the work runs. That no clean product comes from a contaminated material, the frame of HACCP, the part played by records — Chapter 12 takes those. If Chapter 12 asks what to protect, this chapter asks how to build.

Italy has a name for it

The Italian literature puts the layout of a workshop in one line. Set the machines in the order of production.

For the order of the work, the literature does not speak in its own voice. It introduces marcia in avanti as something the current hygiene rules recommend. Work on what is still to be cleaned first, and on what is already clean after. Keep that order, and cross-contamination is avoided.

The word here is cleaned, because that is the word in the original. Pasteurization is only one instance of it. Fruit not yet washed, and utensils not yet washed, stand on the same side — the side still to be cleaned. So the principle reaches work that has no pasteurizing step at all.

A warning comes with it. Do not use the same utensil on product before pasteurization and product after it at the same time. What is forbidden is the simultaneous use. Alternating use, with washing and disinfection in between, is not forbidden. This point is worth getting right. A proviso further down this chapter says the same. On this point the Italian side stands where the Japanese one stands.

As temperature must not go back, contamination must not go back either. It is the same shape as Chapter 16.

The third principle is in the tasting

One more principle the literature states in its own voice: the hygiene of tasting.

Mixing, and above all the last adjustment before the mantecatore, means tasting again and again. The literature asks for a double sink close by. It then says that this work above all must be done holding strictly and absolutely to the most basic rules of hygiene. It goes as far as listing what must be within reach — water, liquid soap, paper towels, and disposable cups and spoons for tasting.

Why is this the point? Tasting is the moment when a spoon from the mouth, and the hand that held it, come back to the pasteurized mix. No layout drawing of a workshop shows it, and yet the most frequent going-back of the day happens here. Partition the room, set the machines in order — this path stays open. What closes it is a disposable spoon, and the soap right beside it.

For small utensils — juicers, blenders, food processors — the literature asks something else. Wash them after use, and put them away on a shelf, out of the dust. Chapter 12 asked that whisks and dishers belong in running water. What is in use has its water kept moving; what is finished with is dried and put away. The kind of utensil decides which.

Japanese law has no word for it

So how is it said in Japan?

In Japan, neither the word for "one-way" nor the word for "one-way flow" appears in the law. The Enforcement Regulation of the Food Sanitation Act runs to about 1.77 million characters. A search of the full text returns nothing for either. The word for "cross-contamination" returns nothing. So does the word for "contaminated working area".

Not that the thought is missing here. It is written in other words, and from two sides.

First — the side of the premises

The standards for the premises put it this way.

(The English wording above is a reference translation; only the Japanese text carries legal force.)

In the light of the process — that phrase answers the Italian line about setting the machines in the order of production. The wording differs; what is asked is the same.

For the business of manufacturing ice cream products there is a standard more specific still.

(The English wording above is a reference translation; only the Japanese text carries legal force.)

It is easy to read past, but look again. The law lists the steps of the process in their order. Filter, pasteurize, cool, fill, package, freeze. The list of equipment is itself the route of the work.

Walls are not required

Here comes the line that decides matters for a small workshop. The standard just quoted from the Enforcement Regulation carries a proviso.

(The English wording above is a reference translation; only the Japanese text carries legal force.)

So — a wall is not an absolute requirement. Even a workshop too narrow to be divided has a way through.

Set the paths, or wash and disinfect at every change of work. Where the necessary hygiene measures are taken that way, partitions are not needed. The Regulation allows the order to be built by construction, and it allows the order to be built by operation.

This reads less as leniency than as realism. Few shops of a few tens of square meters can raise a wall between a contaminated working area and a clean one. If it cannot be raised, make the same result with order and washing — that is what the provision says.

Second — the side of the hands

However the premises are put together, one path remains. The human hand.

The Enforcement Regulation also sets a standard for general hygiene management. It reads as follows.

(The English wording above is a reference translation; only the Japanese text carries legal force.)

Brought to gelato, it comes to this. A hand that has touched mix before pasteurization, or fruit before washing, does not go on to the work after pasteurization. To go on, wash the hands, disinfect them, and change the gloves if gloves are worn.

The Italian literature spoke of the utensil — not the same one before and after pasteurization. The Japanese standard says the same thing about the hand, not the utensil. The point of attack differs; the hole being closed is one and the same.

And on this side there is no proviso. However many walls are raised, the washing of hands cannot be dropped. The order of a workshop cannot be built from construction alone.

Chapter 12 asked to break the eggs in a separate place, and to disinfect the hands afterward. That was asking for these two — the zoning and the hand — to be held at once.

What binds you is the prefecture's ordinance

One important proviso to close with. The standards for the premises quoted here are not the rules that bind you directly.

The Food Sanitation Act reads as follows. The prefecture is to establish the necessary standards by ordinance, taking into account the standards set by order of the ministry. Those standards are the ones necessary from the standpoint of public health. So what the ministerial order gives is a standard to be taken into account. What actually binds is the ordinance of your own prefecture.

So learning the provisions of this chapter by heart is not enough. Before the workshop is built, talk to the public health center that covers you. What is asked can differ from place to place.

The words for "contaminated working area" and "clean working area" may also be familiar. They do exist in a public document. But it is one addressed to cooking facilities that serve 300 or more meals at a sitting, or 750 or more in a day. It is a public guideline, not a law, and an ordinary gelateria falls outside its scope. There is value in learning the idea. There is no need to take it for a requirement laid on you.

The rules quoted here are Japanese. Where the binding rules sit — national, regional, or local — differs from place to place, and changes with time. Find out who sets the rules for food premises where you are. Ask them at the design stage, not after construction.

Build so that nothing goes back

What Chapter 16 and this chapter have shown comes down to one thing. Build the workshop so that nothing goes back.

Temperature, once raised, is not returned. Contamination is not let across from before pasteurization to after it. The first is guarded by the order of the handovers, the second by placement, by paths, and by the hands. Both are the same on one point: no going back is allowed.

And neither is visible. A temperature that made a round trip, a hand that was not washed — nothing happens at the time. It shows days later, on a customer's tongue. What Part V has taken is, in the end, the craft of preventing this invisible failure.