How Often Dairy Queen Blizzard Machines Are Cleaned

Somewhere along the line, fast food restaurant kitchens picked up a bad reputation for cleanliness. Maybe it's all the grease, the close association with cheap food, or the anecdotal stories about employees doing less-than-savory things while on the job. Whatever the case, there's a widespread misconception that these establishments don't clean their equipment, which would be quite the fast food scandal. In fact, the opposite is true. 

Of course, cleaning procedures and frequency may vary by location, machine model, and local health regulations, because most Dairy Queen restaurants are independently owned franchises. However, employee accounts indicate that some parts of these workhorses are actually cleaned as often as between uses.

@dqshelbytwpmi

Reply to @presidentobamaofficial How we clean the Blizzard machine 🧼🧽🪣 #dq #dairyqueen #behindthescene

♬ CRAFT – OFEKNIV

That includes the spindle, the long "limb" that is inserted into the frozen treat to mix the candy and other inclusions throughout. While it's not always possible to clean the hands-on machines between orders, especially when it's busy, employees try their best to keep up with the task to help avoid cross-contamination between inclusions. Employees who are lucky enough to have hands-free machines don't have to do anything; the machines automatically clean themselves between uses. This type of Blizzard maker is also broken down and given a thorough cleaning at the end of each day, after the store has closed for the night.

The hands-free Blizzard machine washes itself, including the mixing chamber, between each use (how different this technology must seem to anyone who worked at DQ when it first opened decades ago). However, manual machines have no such cool feature and must be wiped down by hand. That means using sanitizer and a cloth and really getting into the machine's nooks and crannies. To get the spindle bright and shiny again, some employees fill a metal cup with a mixture of sanitizer and water, and then run the machine on the "clean" setting. It is of the utmost importance that this sequence be performed at the end of the day after closing, with the machine left to air-dry overnight.

For the hands-free version, a post-closing deep cleaning means removing the door, cup lid, and cup holder and placing them in the typical commercial-kitchen three-sink setup: a wash sink, a rinse sink, and a sanitizing sink. To sanitize the spindle, employees can "blend" a cup of sanitizer. While you might be bored with newer Blizzard flavors, the maintenance and upkeep of the machines are actually far from dull.