A three-compartment sink is how a kitchen without a dishwasher washes, rinses and sanitizes pots, pans and utensils, and the FDA Food Code, which most health departments adopt in some version, sets what it needs. The sink has at least three compartments, each big enough to submerge your largest pan or bowl, with drainboards or racks for dirty and clean items. The steps: scrape, wash in detergent at 110°F or more or the detergent label's temperature, rinse in clean water, then sanitize, and let things air-dry. The sanitizer is where the numbers are: hot water at 171°F for 30 seconds; chlorine at a temperature that depends on strength, 120°F for 25 to 49 ppm, 100°F for 50 to 99 ppm, 55°F at 100 ppm; quat at the strength on its EPA label, in water at 75°F or warmer; or iodine at 12.5 to 25 ppm and 68°F. You need a test kit for the sanitizer, and the sink can't double as a hand sink. In the example below, a pierogi maker's afternoon check at a shared kitchen catches a weak, cold sanitizer. Below are the steps, the numbers, the example, and a free sink log.
The short version
- At least three compartments, each big enough for your largest pan, with drainboards.
- Scrape, wash, rinse, sanitize, air-dry.
- Wash water: 110°F or more, or the detergent label's temperature.
- Hot water sanitizing: 171°F, 30 seconds.
- Chlorine: 25 to 49 ppm at 120°F, 50 to 99 ppm at 100°F, 100 ppm at 55°F.
- Quat: the EPA label's strength, in water at 75°F or warmer. Iodine: 12.5 to 25 ppm at 68°F.
- Keep test strips at the sink, and never use it for handwashing.
- TaroStack keeps your own cleaning checks on the batch record. More below.
The steps
| Step | Compartment | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Scrape | Before the sink | Food scraped into the trash; presoak if it needs it |
| Wash | First | Detergent per its label, 110°F or more |
| Rinse | Second | Clean water to remove detergent, which weakens sanitizer |
| Sanitize | Third | Hot water or chemical sanitizer, at its strength, temperature and contact time |
| Air-dry | Drainboard | No towel drying |
Change the water when it's dirty, cool or the sanitizer reads low. What a full cleaning routine looks like is in sanitation SOP template.
The numbers
| Rule | Food Code 2022 |
|---|---|
| Compartments | At least 3, big enough to submerge the largest equipment and utensils; otherwise a warewasher or approved alternative (4-301.12) |
| Drainboards | Room for all dirty and clean items that pile up during the day (4-301.13) |
| Wash water | At least 110°F, or the detergent label's temperature (4-501.19) |
| Rinse | A separate water rinse after washing, before sanitizing, in a 3-compartment sink (4-603.16) |
| Hot water | 171°F or above, items immersed at least 30 seconds (4-501.111, 4-703.11) |
| Chlorine | 25–49 ppm at 120°F; 50–99 ppm at 100°F (75°F if pH 8 or less); 100 ppm at 55°F; at least 10 seconds (4-501.114, 4-703.11) |
| Quat | The EPA label's strength, 75°F or warmer, water hardness 500 ppm or less (4-501.114) |
| Iodine | 12.5–25 ppm, 68°F or warmer, pH 5.0 or less (4-501.114) |
| Other sanitizers | At least 30 seconds, per the label (4-703.11) |
| Test kit | One that measures the sanitizer's concentration (4-302.14) |
| Use | No handwashing in a warewashing sink; clean and sanitize it before and after washing produce or thawing food (4-501.16) |
All from the FDA Food Code 2022; your health department enforces its own version, sometimes with changes. Follow your sanitizer's EPA label. The rest of a kitchen's requirements are in commercial kitchen requirements. This is general information, not legal advice.
An example: a pierogi maker at a shared kitchen
Avondale Pierogi Co., the made-up pierogi maker in Chicago, Illinois, I use in these examples, rents time at a shared kitchen whose rules ask each user to log the three-compartment sink at the start of a shift and every four hours. The kitchen uses a quat sanitizer labeled for 200 to 400 ppm:
| Time | Wash | Sanitizer | Reading | Sanitizer water | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7:30 | 118°F | Quat | 300 ppm | 78°F | OK |
| 11:00 | 112°F | Quat | 250 ppm | 76°F | OK |
| 15:00 | 104°F | Quat | 100 ppm | 74°F | Wash too cool; quat below the label |
| 15:10, refilled | 116°F | Quat | 300 ppm | 79°F | OK |
By three o'clock the sinks had cooled and the sanitizer had been worn down by dough and flour carried over from the rinse. The pans washed since the last good check were run through again after the refill. The kitchen's 60-quart mixer bowl doesn't fit the compartments, so the kitchen washes it in the deep pot sink, which its health department approved. The kitchen's rules for users are in shared kitchen rules, and the daily cleaning list in shared kitchen cleaning checklist.
Get the template
Download the three-compartment sink log. One sheet: type your quat label's range, then each check's date, time, wash water temperature, sanitizer, reading, sanitizer water temperature and whether the water was changed; the status checks them against the Food Code numbers and flags what's off in red. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The sink log shows the sanitizer was weak at three o'clock. It doesn't sit with the day's batch, where an inspector, or a grocer's auditor, looks for it.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps your own checks on the batch record, so the day's cleaning sits with the day's production.
Your own fields on the batch record. A batch record can carry fields of your own: the sanitizer reading, the changeover clean, who signed it, recorded on a phone at the sink.
Printable batch records. Batch-record forms print with your own checklist fields and sign-off, for the binder or the inspector.
Each run a lot. Each day's pierogi are a batch with a lot and date, so the checks and the product share one record, and if a batch has to come back, one recall report shows every grocer that got it.
| The job | Clipboard | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Sanitizer reading for the day | A sheet by the sink | A field on the batch record |
| Who signed off the clean | Initials, sometimes | Sign-off on the batch record |
| The binder for an inspector | Loose pages | Printable batch records |
| Which grocers got a batch | Invoices | One recall report |
Batch records with your own fields and sign-off, lots and recalls are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.