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That old, familiar cloth bar towel – used for years in grocery stores, delis, and other foodservice and retail food establishments – may be going the way of the dinosaur as a new breed of disposable wiping tools enters the market. Engineered to feel like cloth, and work even better, these towels offer numerous advantages to stores looking to upgrade their image.

It should be no surprise that a dirty-looking grocery store is a big customer turn-off. But did you know that more than three-quarters of grocery shoppers base their purchasing decisions on the cleanliness of the store? According to a recent survey of grocery store customers, slightly more than half of those surveyed said they would leave the store immediately without purchasing anything if they encountered dirty or unsanitary conditions. And more than one-quarter said they would purchase items at that visit, but they would probably not shop at the store again.

Grocery store patrons spread the word about dirty conditions as well, with 90 percent of shoppers surveyed saying they would tell friends and family not to patronize a grocery store they found dirty.

The fact is that people often make an intuitive connection between the cleanliness of a grocery store and the cleanliness or safety of the food found in that store. Whether it's a dirty counter or table, a spill on the floor, or a food handler who doesn't pay attention to proper handwashing practices, the general public has an awareness of conditions that may affect the safety of their food.

The Right Tool For the Job

Keeping surfaces clean is a key component of store cleanliness. From deli and foodservice counters to center store shelves and checkout, surface cleanliness is a round-the-clock job in most stores. But are you using the right tools for this crucial job?

Consider the lowly cloth bar towel. A common fixture in many grocery stores and other foodservice establishments, these cloth towels are typically cotton or cotton-blend white towels that are supplied by a laundry service. As these towels get used and laundered week after week, they can become inconsistent in size and shape. In addition, the laundering may cause loose strings to pull off the towel, creating a potential safety hazard if the towels are used around equipment. This, coupled with stains that may not be removed by laundering, can create the impression that the towels are old and unclean.

A better, more appealing alternative to laundered cloth towels can be found in a line of disposable foodservice towels from Kimberly-Clark Professional. Made with Kimberly-Clark's patented HYDROKNIT® Fast-Absorbing Material, these WYPALL® Foodservice Towels are consistent in size and shape. They also are much more absorbent than cloth towels, wiping up spills three times faster than cloth towels. In addition, compared with other disposable towels, WYPALL® Foodservice Towels are stronger when wet and durable enough for repeated use.

One advantage of WYPALL® Foodservice Towels over cloth towels is the large array of towels to choose from for different applications. For example, WYPALL® X80 Foodservice Wipers are an ideal replacement for cloth towels, while WYPALL® X70 and WYPALL® X60 Foodservice Towels offer advantages versus other disposable foodservice towels.

WYPALL® X80 Wipers feature an antimicrobial treatment called KIMFRESH®, which inhibits bacteria growth on the towel, to protect against towel odors and keep the towels fresher longer than untreated towels (no more sour towel smells!).

Another advantage is the ability to color-code towels for different uses. WYPALL® Foodservice Towels are available in the following colors:

• White
• Blue
• Yellow
• Red

Darker-colored towels help to hide stains, to keep the towels looking fresher, longer. And the array of colors helps operators segregate different towels for different uses. For example, a white towel can be used to wipe tables or countertops, while a red towel can be used with raw meat or seafood. A blue towel can be used with ready-to-eat foods. This color-coding helps to reduce chances for the cross-contamination of germs from one area to the next.

A word about cost. KIMTECH® Surface Sanitizer Wipes have competitive cost-in-use to traditional sanitizing systems (chemicals, buckets, towels, etc.), while WYPALL® Foodservice Wipers are guaranteed to cost less than cloth towels. In fact, as part of its "WYPALL® Challenge," Kimberly-Clark Professional guarantees that customers switching from cloth wipers to WYPALL® wipers will save 10 percent in their wiping systems costs over a 60-day period, helping to ease the transition from cloth to disposables.

Surface Sanitation At Its Best

Another issue with cloth towels is the tendency to use them over and over again. The problem here is not so much reusing the towels per-se, but the way they are stored between wiping tasks. People often forget to keep the towels in the bucket of cleaning solution. Instead, they're left on counters or hanging over buckets, where they can be eyesores. (Often the mere appearance of something unsightly can create the perception of unsanitary conditions.) Frequent use of traditional rags can also weaken the users' sanitizing solution. The KIMTECH® Surface Sanitizer Wipe eliminates the problem since the user dispenses a new wiper with fresh sanitizer of known concentration and efficacy every time.

Fortunately, grocers now have an alternative to messy buckets, smelly rags and volatile spray bottles for cleaning bacteria from hard, non-porous food contact surfaces.

The new, EPA-registered, NSF-registered KIMTECH® Surface Sanitizer Wipe from Kimberly-Clark Professional kills 99.999 percent of bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 65380), Escherichia coli O 157:H7 (ATCC 43895), Listeria monocytogenes (ATCC 15313) (ATCC 19115), Salmonella choleraesuis (ATCC 10708), Shigella boydii (ATCC 9207), and Klebsiella pneumoniae (ATCC 4352)in 60 seconds on hard, non-porous food contact surfaces.

With the new KIMTECH® Surface Sanitizer Wipe, users simply wipe and toss. There are no chemicals to store, mix and test. And surfaces don't have to be rinsed after wiping, helping to make sanitizing quick and easy.

As an alternative to spray bottles, cleaning buckets and rags, the KIMTECH® Surface Sanitizer Wipe helps grocers develop best practices in sanitation. For example, since it eliminates the need to return a used towel to a sanitizer bucket, it eliminates the problem of contaminated rags.

By Linwood Herndon
Grocery Segment Manager
Kimberly-Clark Professional

Kimberly-Clark Corporation, 1400 Holcomb Bridge Rd., Roswell, GA 30076-2199. Tel: 770-587-8176; Fax: 770-587-7711.

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