Authorized_keys when Creating AMI from an EC2 System

Question

I am working with the public RedHat AMI on EC2, and then I am creating an image from the instance.

The image works as expected. However, any instance created from the image that I created inherits .ssh/authorized_keys from the original instance. Since the new image will be public, this will be a potential security issue for image users and hence I'd like to remove it before making an image.

However, if I remove it, I myself will not be able to login to the original instance which we plan to keep updating and also release new Images (unless I go through a lengthy procedure).

I read the amazon document for creating public AMI but it does not address this point.

What would be the recommended method? thank you for the help