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Preventing Cross-Contamination, Part 1: Why Washdown Matters More Than Ever
July 01, 2025
What Salmonella Outbreaks Reveal About Hidden Sanitation Gaps in Industrial Facilities
Why recent food recalls are a wake-up call for industrial cleaning protocols
In May 2025, a leading California egg producer issued a recall for nearly 2 million dozen eggs after a Salmonella outbreak sickened dozens of consumers and hospitalized more than 20. While the story made headlines, the underlying issue went largely unnoticed: the role that routine sanitation processes—like washdowns—can play in spreading contamination rather than stopping it.
For industrial facilities, especially in food and beverage manufacturing, this incident underscores a critical question:
Are Your Washdown Practices Containing Contamination or Spreading It?
Even facilities with strong sanitation protocols are at risk from a lesser-known threat: media translocation. This occurs when water used during a washdown process moves contaminants--like bacteria, organic material, or food debris from one area to another. It’s a silent flaw in many standard cleaning routines. While cleaning is intended to eliminate risk, without proper control, it can actually redistribute pathogens across your facility.
What is media translocation in industrial washdowns?
Media translocation often goes undetected because it's not about what you clean--but "how" water moves during cleaning. For example, when cleaning, water or disinfectants dislodge contaminants from surfaces, then carry them back onto cleaned surfaces during sanitation or into unintended zones—like from a processing area into a packaging zone. It often happens due to:
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Inadequate floor slope or drainage - poorly graded floors allow water and debris to travel unpredictably
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Poorly placed hose stations - water can over spray into unintended zones, carrying bacteria with it
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Excessive water pressure - high velocity spray increases airborne moisture and can atomize particles, allowing contaminants to travel via humidity or settle elsewhere
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Lack of containment zones - without proper air pressure differentials, contaminants can move between spaces or into HVAC systems
Even facilities that follow strict SOPs, media translocation can quietly undermine sanitation efforts if teams aren't verifying "where water flows and how contaminants behave".
A Quiet Risk, A Big Impact!
Media translocation isn't just a theoretical problem. It's a real-world sanitation gap that can lead to:
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Food safety violations or failed audits
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Brand damage from recalls or consumer illness
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Compromised product quality and shelf life
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Increased risk in sensitive environments (like pharmaceuticals or dairy)
And yet, because the effects are invisible until there's a problem, many facilities don't address this risk until it's too late.
What Comes Next?
In the next post of this series, we'll take you inside a real washdown audit at an egg processing facility where sanitation looked compliant on the surface but was failing in practice. You'll see how high-pressure cleaning was actually causing contamination to spread and what simple tests helped uncover the problem.
Stay tuned for Preventing Cross-Contamination, Part 2: Case Study: How One Plant Discovered Its Cleaning Process Was Spreading Contaminants.