Rule 3717-1-04.3 | Equipment, utensils, and linens: location and installation.
(A) Equipment, clothes washers and dryers, and storage cabinets - contamination prevention by properly locating.
(1) Equipment, a cabinet used for the storage of food, or a cabinet that is used to store cleaned and sanitized equipment, utensils, laundered linens, single-service articles, or single-use articles are not to be located:
(a) In toilet rooms;
(b) In garbage rooms;
(c) In mechanical rooms;
(d) Under sewer lines that are not shielded to intercept potential drips;
(e) Under leaking water lines including leaking automatic fire sprinkler heads or under lines on which water has condensed;
(f) Under open stairwells;
(g) In locker rooms unless it is a storage cabinet used only for linens, single-service articles, or single-use articles; or
(h) Under other sources of contamination.
(2) If a mechanical clothes washer or dryer is provided, it is to be located so that the washer or dryer is protected from contamination and located where there is no exposed food; clean equipment, utensils, or linens; or unwrapped single-service or single-use articles.
(B) Fixed equipment installation - spacing or sealing.
(1) Equipment that is fixed because it is not easily movable is to be installed so that it is:
(a) Spaced to allow access for cleaning along the sides, behind, and above the equipment;
(b) Spaced from adjoining equipment, walls, and ceilings a distance of not more than one thirty-second inch or one millimeter; or
(c) Sealed to adjoining equipment or walls, if the equipment is exposed to spillage or seepage.
(2) Counter-mounted equipment that is not easily movable is to be installed to allow cleaning of the equipment and areas underneath and around the equipment by being:
(a) Sealed; or
(b) Elevated on legs as specified under paragraph (C)(2) of this rule.
(C) Fixed equipment installation - elevation or sealing.
(1) Floor-mounted equipment that is not easily movable is to be sealed to the floor or elevated on legs that provide at least a six inch (fifteen centimeter) clearance between the floor and the equipment. This paragraph does not apply:
(a) If no part of the floor under the floor-mounted equipment is more than six inches (fifteen centimeters) from the point of cleaning access, the clearance space may be only four inches (ten centimeters).
(b) To display shelving units, display refrigeration units, and display freezer units located in the consumer shopping areas of a food service operation or retail food establishment, if the floor under the units is maintained clean.
(2) Counter-mounted equipment that is not easily movable is to be elevated on legs that provide at least a four inch (ten centimeter) clearance between the counter and the equipment, unless the horizontal distance of the counter top under the equipment from the point of access for cleaning is no more than:
(a) Twenty inches (fifty centimeters) and the clearance space is at least three inches (7.5 centimeters); or
(b) Three inches (7.5 centimeters) and the clearance space is at least two inches (five centimeters).
Last updated September 5, 2024 at 11:16 AM
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