How important is sanitation? VERY! However, only you and your company can determine how seriously you are going to take it.Most people have been part of a sanitation program from as early as primary school, but MAY not have recognized it. As children we were directed to clean our rooms, put our clothes away, wash our DISHES, and do other dreaded chores. Whether a formal chore chart or an informal household rule, your family likely followed some sort of cleaning schedule: dishes were washed daily; laundry was washed, folded, and put away weekly; and cleaning your dungeon room may have ranged from weekly to yearly!These tasks probably were not documented, frequencies assigned, or completion DATES recorded, but you were learning your role in your home’s master cleaning schedule (MCS).For each of those household chores there was likely a procedure to be followed. Dirty dishes probably need to be scraped and rinsed before placing in the dishwasher. Dirty laundry needs to be pre-treated, pulled right-side out, and sorted by COLOR before loading in the washing machine. These procedures probably were not written, but your parents had specific instructions they taught you to follow to ensure the cleaning activities were successful.How many of your household chores were verified and validated? Probably all of them—even though you didn’t realize it.Your parents most likely checked to make sure you completed the chores properly; that was verification. Validation happened when your parents opened the clean dishwasher, then informed you that food remained on the dishes because you forgot to pre-rinse them. The completed task did not achieve the desired results of clean dishes. That MEANS that something in the MCS (e.g., cleaning procedures, cleaning equipment, cleaning chemicals, or operator training) needed to be modified to achieve the desired results.Since we were trained to follow a “sanitation program” as children, why do so many adults still tend to struggle so much with sanitation programs in food facilities? Let’s take a look at some examples of how sanitation impacts the food industry and what is required of sanitation programs.