LOTO in food and beverage manufacturing plays a unique role in maintaining sanitation, which is essential to maintaining product quality, preventing contamination, and protecting consumers. Cleaning and sanitation, however can also create unique employee safety challenges, especially when workers need to access equipment where hazardous energy may still be present.
Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) is designed to protect employees from the unexpected startup of machinery or the release of stored or residual energy during servicing and maintenance. Under OSHA’s Control of Hazardous Energy standard, servicing and maintenance can include cleaning when an employee may be exposed to unexpected energization, startup, or hazardous energy release.
For food manufacturers, that means sanitation activities deserve careful consideration as part of the facility’s overall energy-control program.
Why Sanitation Requires Special LOTO Considerations
Food-processing equipment is often cleaned frequently—sometimes between production runs or multiple times during a shift. Depending on the equipment and cleaning process, sanitation employees may need to remove guards, open access points, enter areas of equipment, or reach into areas that are inaccessible during normal production.
When those activities expose employees to hazardous energy, appropriate energy-control procedures are required.
Common Hazardous Energy Sources in Food Processing
OSHA identifies several types of hazardous energy that may be present in machinery and equipment, including:
- Electrical
- Mechanical
- Hydraulic
- Pneumatic
- Chemical
- Thermal
- Stored or residual energy
Food-processing environments can also involve hazards associated with pressurized water, steam, or other process systems. The specific energy sources will depend on the equipment and the process.
Simply stopping a machine does not necessarily eliminate these hazards.
LOTO Challenges During Frequent Equipment Cleaning
Sanitation can require employees to interact with equipment far more frequently than a typical maintenance activity.
Conveyors, mixers, slicers, fillers, packaging equipment, pumps, grinders, ovens, and other machinery may need to be accessed during cleaning.
The more frequently employees perform these activities, the more important it becomes to have energy-control procedures that are clear, equipment-specific, and practical to follow.
A procedure developed primarily for a maintenance activity may not adequately address how sanitation employees interact with the same equipment.
That is why it is important to evaluate how equipment is actually cleaned—not simply how the equipment is supposed to be serviced according to a manual.
Managing Multiple Energy Sources in Food Manufacturing
Food-processing equipment can have multiple energy sources that must be considered before servicing or cleaning begins.
For example, a machine may have electrical power, compressed air, hydraulic pressure, mechanical movement, elevated components, or stored energy.
Isolating one source does not necessarily make the equipment safe if another hazardous energy source remains capable of causing injury.
OSHA requires energy-control procedures to address the specific steps necessary to shut down, isolate, block or secure equipment, control stored energy, and verify that isolation has been achieved before work begins.
This is one reason a machine-specific LOTO procedure is so important.
CIP Systems and Lockout/Tagout Safety
Clean-in-place (CIP) systems are widely used in food and beverage manufacturing and can introduce additional hazards depending on the system and process.
These may include hot water, steam, chemicals, pressure, and other forms of hazardous energy.
The key is not simply identifying that a facility has a CIP system. The energy-control procedure needs to address the actual hazards associated with the equipment and the work being performed.
Employees performing servicing or maintenance need to know what energy sources must be controlled, where the energy-isolating devices are located, and how isolation will be verified before work begins.
How Machine-Specific LOTO Procedures Improve Safety
For complex food-processing equipment, visual procedures can help connect written instructions to what employees actually see on the floor.
Photographs, equipment layouts, clearly identified isolation points, and step-by-step instructions can make it easier for authorized employees to identify the correct energy-isolating devices and follow the required sequence.
The goal isn’t simply to create another document.
The goal is to create a procedure that an employee can take to the equipment, understand, and safely execute when performing cleaning, servicing or maintenance tasks.
Are your sanitation procedures aligned with the hazardous energy risks of your food-processing equipment?
Quality Lockout helps food and beverage manufacturers assess LOTO programs, develop and validate machine-specific procedures, conduct field audits, and deliver employee training.
Contact Quality Lockout to discuss your facility’s LOTO needs and identify opportunities to improve procedure effectiveness and employee safety.
About the Author
Katherine Doty serves as Head of Customer Support at Quality Lockout LLC, where she is dedicated to strengthening customer retention, brand loyalty, and long-term client success through exceptional technical support and service excellence. With a strong belief that safety and compliance are built on trust—not just troubleshooting—Katherine plays a critical role in ensuring clients receive reliable guidance, responsive support, and confidence in their Lockout/Tagout programs.
As a results-driven sales and customer relationship leader with more than seven years of experience in competitive markets, Katherine brings extensive expertise across the full customer lifecycle, including prospecting, relationship management, strategic partnerships, account growth, and client retention. Her background combines sales leadership with operational support, allowing her to bridge customer needs with practical solutions that drive both satisfaction and business growth.