Ours has a cleaning cycle we run about once a month that sanitizes the machine. I've been adding a recommended cleaner with it, but I think even that is unneeded.
I wouldn't worry about the rinsing thing with modern machines. Leaving the machine open to avoid mold is definitely advisable, though (some machines have vents for this, but most don't).
They all have to be cleaned nightly, but they're not all self-sanitizing. The woman at the wendy's drive-through said they "wash" the machines nightly, which suggests they take it a part and wash it rather than running a self-sanitizing cycle.
Newer front-loaders seem to come with a self-clean cycle that does the trick (especially when you add some vinegar or bleach to the four hour process).
They know better than to drink out of the machines which were supposedly cleaned when they weren't there to know for sure.
In the best-run high-turnover locations where cleaning agents are used according to a rigorous schedule proven to prevent slime and bacteria, it might be even more likely to have exposure if the chemicals are habitually incompletely rinsed from the apparatus afterward.
In the good old days the soft serve and shake machines were taken apart every night and every piece was washed and bleach-sanitized by hand.
I was a McD manager in my youth.
Not only were the internals fully disassembled and sanitized, they were left to soak in the solution overnight. All that was left behind was the cylindrical plastic chamber, sanitized and left to air dry overnight.
The messiest part was lubricating the O-rings with a petroleum jelly. Failure to remove all that when cleaning seemed like a good vector for microbes.
No. It means that they just open up and clean the machine each day, just like every other appliance that touches food. The MD machine was designed to run without daily cleaning.
And this means very expensive prices for having the machine cleaned. I agree with the parent, cleaning should not require an expensive and risky strip and rebuild. This is, at best, a misguided design.
It has been 20 years, and surely the machines have changed. But it wasn't difficult to learn to tear the machine down. Considering this is a company that often has picture instructions for employees and tends to make things easy to understand, I can't imagine it has gotten more difficult.
The store I worked at did this every night after running disinfectant through the machine: The parts we took off were cleaned every night. There were trays to keep the parts organized. These were organized in a way that made them easy to grab for proper assembly in the morning. Occasionally the morning staff had some problems, but those were usually fixed in time for there to be ice cream at lunch.
In other words: Store employees can do all of the basic stuff necessary with the machine.
Again, though, the machines have likely changed (Though they probably work similarly). And if the current machines need cleaned and sanitized less often, employees probably don't do it as often. I'm gonna guess instructions can fix this, though.
Cleaning removes things pretty uniformly, but also doesn't result in a sterile (or even really quasi-sterile) surface. Disinfection is a pretty important next step after cleaning.
> No. It means that they just open up and clean the machine each day, just like every other appliance that touches food.
Maybe on paper, but having worked in jobs that required the routine cleaning of things, I can state with certainty that said things were often either 1) not actually cleaned or 2) not properly cleaned.
They're not hard to clean at all and it is recommended that you do so just like it is on all of the full autos I've used. I don't have to worry about the people that think that you never have to run a maintenance cycle on the machine to clean it. Also, the mold problem is because most people leave the machine loaded after use. If you merely open the loader and leave it open it releases the just-used pod and dries out on its own.
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