How to Clean a Meat Slicer (Safely, and the Part Everyone Skips)

Why this is worth doing properly

A slicer is the most hazardous thing in a home kitchen to clean badly, for two separate reasons. One is obvious: it has a 10-inch blade that stays sharp while you handle the parts around it. The other is not obvious at all.

Slicers have seams, and cooked meat residue sits in them. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes deli slicers as an important source of Listeria monocytogenes cross-contamination, and notes that Listeria causes the third highest number of foodborne illness deaths in the United States. Listeria is unusual among foodborne organisms in that it grows at refrigerator temperatures, so a machine that is put away damp and dirty does not simply stay as dirty as it was.

That CDC study is worth knowing about for a second reason. Looking at retail delis — businesses that are inspected and have written procedures — it found that around half were not cleaning their slicers often enough: 49.5% of managers and 54.2% of workers reported cleaning less frequently than every four hours. If half of professional kitchens get this wrong, a home kitchen with no procedure at all is not starting from a strong position.

How often

The FDA Food Code requires food-contact surfaces, slicers included, to be cleaned and sanitised at least every four hours when in constant use — and it requires the machine to be disassembled before cleaning and sanitising. That is the commercial standard, and if you are slicing for a business it is the one you are held to.

For a home kitchen the practical rule is simpler:

• Full strip-down and sanitise after every session. Not every four hours — every time, because a home slicer is put away rather than kept running.
• Between raw and ready-to-eat foods, always. Slicing raw meat and then cheese without cleaning in between is the single worst thing you can do with the machine.
• Between different products in the same session, at minimum wipe the blade and carriage down.

The reason the four-hour figure exists is bacterial growth on a warm, damp, food-covered surface. A machine that sits out for an afternoon between uses is in exactly that condition.

Before you touch it

• Unplug it. Not switched off — unplugged. Every slicer covered on this site has an on/off switch you can knock.
• Put on cut-resistant gloves. This is the advice that comes up again and again from people who own these machines, usually phrased as a lesson learned. One owner on a smoking forum described not wearing them the first time he cleaned his and wearing them every time since. The blade is exposed during disassembly and it does not get less sharp because the machine is off.
• Set the thickness dial to zero. This retracts the gauge plate so it covers the blade edge as much as the design allows, and it is the standard first move before any strip-down.
• Clear the sink and the counter first. You want somewhere to put a wet 10-inch blade the moment it comes off, not to be looking for one while holding it.

What you need

• Cut-resistant gloves
• Hot water and dish soap
• A food-safe sanitiser, or a dilute bleach solution made up per its own label
• A cleaning brush — most slicers ship with one
• Clean cloths or paper towel for drying
• Food-grade machine oil for the slide rod

Both of the commercial machines covered on this site supply part of that kit. The BESWOOD250 ships with a cleaning brush and a bottle of food-grade machine oil, which tells you what the manufacturer expects the routine to be. The KWS MS-10NT ships with a spare whetstone and a spare drive belt.

Step by step

1. Remove the food carriage and tray

On most machines the carriage lifts off once it is at the end of its travel, and the product tray comes away with it or separately. These are the parts that hold raw product, so they are the priority. A machine whose carriage does not come off is a machine you cannot properly clean, which is one of the things worth checking before buying one.

2. Remove the blade

Blade removal varies by machine, so follow your manual rather than a generic instruction. Some models need a blade removal tool, which is why one is included with certain slicers and sold separately for others.

Handle the blade by the centre hub, never the rim. Carry it flat, put it straight into the sink or onto a clear surface, and do not leave it standing in a bowl of soapy water where you or somebody else will reach in blind.

3. Clean behind the blade

This is the step that separates cleaning from wiping. The blade plate, the ring guard assembly and the recess behind the blade collect a film of fat and protein that never sees a cloth if you only clean what you can see.

Use the brush and hot soapy water, working into the recess and around the mounting. This area is where the seams the CDC is concerned about actually are, and it is the part of the machine that inspectors look at in a commercial kitchen.

4. Wash the removable parts

Hot water, dish soap, and the brush for anything with a corner in it. Wash the carriage, tray, food pusher, blade guard and any slide-rod extension.

Hand wash only. Both the BESWOOD250 and the KWS MS-10NT specify hand washing, and this is not the manufacturer being cautious for the sake of it. Dishwasher detergent is harsh on aluminium and on plated blade edges, and the plating is what stops a high-carbon steel blade underneath from corroding.

Never submerge the machine itself. Removable parts go in the sink; the body does not. There is a motor, a transformer and switchgear inside a slicer housing, and water that gets into them is not a cleaning problem but an electrical one. Wash the body with a damp cloth, not under a tap.

Keep steel wool away from all of it. It scratches aluminium, it strips coatings and plating from blades, and the fibres it sheds are the last thing you want near a food-contact surface.

5. Clean the blade

Wash the blade from the centre outwards, with the cloth or brush moving away from the edge rather than along it. Do both faces. Never run a cloth along the cutting edge, and never use an abrasive pad or scouring powder on a coated or plated blade — you can take the coating off, and the coating is doing a job.

If your machine has a Teflon-coated blade, as the KWS does, you will find noticeably less residue to remove. That is what the coating is for, and it is the reason it is recommended for cheese.

6. Sanitise

Washing removes the soil; sanitising deals with what is left. Apply a food-safe sanitiser to every food-contact surface — blade, carriage, tray, pusher and the blade plate — and leave it for the contact time its label specifies. That contact time is not optional; a sanitiser wiped straight off has not sanitised anything.

If you use a dilute bleach solution, rinse and dry thoroughly afterwards. Chlorine and bare aluminium are a poor combination over time, and a lot of slicer bodies are cast aluminium.

7. Dry completely

Dry every part before it goes back on. Water left on a blade hub or in a seam is how corrosion starts, and it is also how a machine that was clean on Sunday is not clean on Wednesday.

8. Oil the slide rod, then reassemble

The rod the carriage travels along wants a little food-grade machine oil so the stroke stays smooth. Use the oil supplied with the machine or a food-grade equivalent — not cooking oil, which goes sticky and then rancid, and not a general-purpose lubricant, which does not belong near food.

Reassemble in reverse, make sure the blade is seated and its fastening is properly tight, and refit the guards. Then plug it in and run it briefly before you put food anywhere near it.

The bits people miss

• Behind the blade. Covered above, and it is the single most commonly skipped area.
• The ring guard and its fixings. Small parts with edges that trap residue.
• The sharpening stones. They collect metal dust and fat. Brush them; do not soak the assembly.
• The underside of the carriage. Product juices run down and collect where the carriage meets the rod.
• The feet and the counter beneath. Whatever ran off the machine is under it.

Dried-on residue, and other problems

If the machine was put away without cleaning and the residue has hardened, do not attack it with a blade or an abrasive. Lay a hot, wet cloth over the area for ten minutes to soften it, then use the brush. Repeat rather than escalate.

Rust spots on the blade tell you something about the blade material. A 304 stainless blade should not rust in normal use; if it has, it has probably been left wet repeatedly. A high-carbon steel blade with chromium plating relies on that plating, and rust suggests the plating has been damaged — usually by an abrasive pad or a dishwasher. Neither is fixable by cleaning harder.

A blade that will not come clean at the rim is often a dull blade rather than a dirty one, because a dull edge tears product and pushes it into the gap rather than cutting through it. Both machines covered here have on-board sharpening stones for exactly this.

When it is not a cleaning problem

Cleaning fixes hygiene. It does not fix mechanical faults, and a few things people try to clean away are telling you something else:

• Blade wobble or play. Stop using it. A loose blade is the most dangerous fault a slicer can have, and blades loosening over time is one of the two recurring complaints across slicer reviews — the other being trapped residue. Check the fastening first; if it is tight and the wobble remains, the machine needs a part rather than a wipe.
• New noise, grinding or rumbling. Usually bearings, sometimes a belt. On a machine with published spare parts this is a repair; on one without, it is often the end.
• Slices that vary in thickness within one pass. That is the gauge plate or the carriage, not dirt.
• Any exposed wiring or a switch that has got wet inside. Unplug it and stop.

Whether those are fixable is largely a question of who made the machine. That is one of the practical differences in my BESWOOD vs KWS comparison: one publishes around twenty priced spare parts including a motor and a bearing set, and the other lists a blade.

How this guide was researched

Plainly: this is a research-based guide, not a firsthand account, and nothing in it is written as one.

What it rests on: the FDA Food Code requirement for cleaning frequency and for disassembly before cleaning; the CDC’s study of slicer cleaning practice in retail delis, for the frequency data and the Listeria context; the published care instructions and supplied accessories for the machines covered on this site, read from their manufacturers and listings; and owner discussion for the practical safety advice, which is where the recommendation to wear cut-resistant gloves comes from.

What I could not establish: how long a full strip-down actually takes in practice. The CDC study does not report it and no source gives a defensible figure, so this guide does not offer one. Anyone who tells you a commercial slicer strips, washes, sanitises, dries and reassembles in five minutes is guessing.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should a meat slicer be cleaned?

In a commercial kitchen the FDA Food Code requires cleaning and sanitising at least every four hours in constant use, with the machine disassembled first. At home, do a full strip-down after every session, and always between raw meat and anything ready to eat.

Can you put meat slicer parts in the dishwasher?

Generally no. Both commercial machines covered on this site specify hand washing, because dishwasher detergent is harsh on aluminium bodies and on plated or coated blades. Damaging the plating on a high-carbon blade removes the thing that stops it corroding.

How do you clean a meat slicer safely?

Unplug it, wear cut-resistant gloves, set the thickness dial to zero, and clear a space to put the blade before you remove it. Handle the blade by its centre hub rather than the rim, and never leave it submerged in soapy water where someone could reach in without seeing it.

What is the part of a meat slicer people forget to clean?

The area behind the blade — the blade plate, the ring guard and the recess around the mounting. It is not visible without removing the blade, which is why the FDA Food Code requires disassembly rather than wiping, and it is where residue actually accumulates.

Do you need to sanitise a meat slicer or is washing enough?

Both, in that order. Washing removes the visible soil and sanitising deals with what remains, and the sanitiser needs the contact time printed on its label rather than being wiped straight off. Deli slicers are a recognised route for Listeria cross-contamination, which is why the second step exists.

What oil should you use on a meat slicer?

Food-grade machine oil, on the slide rod the carriage travels along. Some slicers supply a bottle with the machine. Do not substitute cooking oil, which turns sticky and then rancid, and do not use a general-purpose penetrating lubricant anywhere near food surfaces.

The bottom line

The whole job comes down to one habit: take it apart. Every genuine risk a slicer carries — the residue in the seams, the film behind the blade, the corrosion under a wet hub — lives in a place you cannot reach with the machine assembled, which is precisely why the commercial standard requires disassembly rather than wiping.

Do that after every session, with gloves on and the machine unplugged, and a slicer stays safe and stays sharp for years. If you are still choosing one, how far it comes apart is worth weighing as heavily as its motor: my meat slicer buying guide covers the home-priced machines, and the KWS MS-10NT and BESWOOD250 reviews cover the two commercial ones in detail.