substantive or ‘stick’ to certain surfaces, especially glass, and can adversely affect beer head retention. There are also potential issues if cleaning a fermenting vessel using caustic soda (sodium hydroxide), because of the residual presence of CO2 gas.
such as reduced shelf life for the next product on the line.”
Too much detergent however means high product costs and possible effluent issues, as cleaning chemicals have to be neutralised in order to meet trade effluent consent agreed with the local wastewater authority.
There is also the cleaning equipment to consider. If a foam detergent is to be used, the equipment needs to be good enough to provide the required contact time so it’s important to balance the size of the foam unit against the size of the cleaning task.
Some detergents can be automatically dosed and their strength controlled using conductivity and engineering equipment. If not, manual checks are important to verify that detergents are being used at their recommended concentrations: laboratory methods, quick field dropper test kits and handy test strips are all available to help do this. Specialist kits are also available to check for individual residues (e.g. ATP), but it is important to understand exactly what these kits are measuring and what the results mean.
The validation of cleaning and ensuring consistent results has become a topic of high priority in the food processing industry. A surface is chemically clean if there are no microscopic soil residues remaining and no residual detergents or disinfectant chemicals to contaminate the food product.
Determination of chemical cleanliness requires tools, such as surface testing sprays like FreshCheck and not just the human eye. This monitoring is crucial for optimum outcomes and to tweak the chemical mix when necessary.
“However, highly caustic detergents, detergents based on sodium or potassium hydroxide, are generally used in dairies as they saponify, or break down, insoluble milk fats. In the food industry soiling can be very high in grease and fats and these respond well to the use of surfactants (traditional washing- up liquid) or where proteins may be present, chlorinated detergents have distinct advantages.
“It is really important to know your customer, know their business so as to get the chemical mix right. If the chemical balance is not correct the outcome is a poor clean with a risk of cross contamination. Time, money and resources are easily wasted in these circumstances and there is the risk of allergens being left behind with potentially serious consequences. Alternatively, other residues can lead to issues
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And finally, as with all industries, there are the environmental and resource usages to consider. Getting the chemical mix right means less water and power are used in the process. Water is a natural resource and an increasingly costly item and has to be paid for, heated, cooled, treated and then paid for again in disposal. So it makes great environmental and economic sense to monitor its use from start to finish.
Declan Ferguson, Technical Director of Finnebrogue, commented: “Working with Christeyns Food Hygiene, we have developed our hygiene standards to meet the
exacting requirements from our retail customers. By using their expertise, knowledge and innovation capabilities we have addressed and exceeded challenges relating to the cleaning and disinfection of our plant and equipment from managing allergens and species cross-contact, to bespoke development of management strategies to protect the integrity of our nitrite-free range of Naked Bacon.”
www.christeyns.com CLEANING CHEMICALS & EQUIPMENT | 59
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