Confidence in clean linen
Justin Kerslake, Operations Director at Christeyns UK, talks about how linen hygiene standards and reducing hard surface contamination risk are crucial to the hospitality sector winning back confidence.
Laundry businesses and the hospitality industry work hand in hand, supporting each other to provide exceptional end- user experiences.
As things get back to normal post-lockdown, this partnership is even more crucial as customer confidence and safety is the key to getting the hospitality sector back on track.
Despite the temporary slowdown, the UK commercial laundry industry has been preparing for the new measures and adapting new ways of working. As an active member of the Textile Services Association, (TSA), Christeyns UK has been involved in discussions as to how laundries and suppliers can best support the industry as it re-emerges and deals with COVID-19.
The TSA has worked with UK Hospitality to produce the Rest Assured Pledge and supporting literature for hospitality outlets, verifying that their linens and towels have been hygienically cleaned.
In order to minimise disruption risk to business and comply with Government COVID-19 Secure requirements, we’ve put in place a series of procedures on our own plants and premises. This helps protect our staff and assures our laundry customers that we’re acting in-line with Government advice to ensure customer and contractor health and wellbeing.
Confidence in hygiene standards doesn’t just refer to cleaned textiles, but also to safe handling post-washing. In general, although there’s a broader need for hygienically cleaned linen (as in disinfected) the current high levels of linen hygiene are not so much of an issue for the UK hospitality business.
For example, Christeyns carries out monthly or regular checks on customer laundry sites to ensure temperatures and dosing is correct and outcomes are consistent. This independently verifies and validates the processes carried out by our customers to check standards are met.
A potential cause for concern is linen transportation and opportunities for reinfection. Recent research has shown that COVID-19 can remain on hard surfaces for up to 72 hours, therefore infecting anything which touches that surface.
There are multiple ‘touchpoints’ as the linen moves from the wash and dry process to its final destination. This includes linen cages, hands of laundry staff, drivers and receiving staff at the destination, and any vehicles or trolleys used.
Although always important prior to the current pandemic, this area of hygiene practice now requires additional attention with the use of specific cleaning chemicals and routines.
Whilst laundry delivery vehicles may seem like mobile insulation units, it’s not risk-free for the driver or the linen, so set procedures should be implemented. This includes
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thorough and regular hygienic deep cleans of vehicles inside and out.
This can be done in a number of ways, one being with the assistance of a pressure spraying unit using a surface disinfection product. For example, using Bacticlense (which has demonstrated viricidal efficacy under BS EN 14476 conditions) enables users to disinfect all common hard surfaces, leaving them safe to handle.
This type of product is also suitable for disinfecting linen cages using the same application and also to use for wiping down the vehicle’s internal elements using a hand spray. Christeyns has been working with Johnsons Hotel Group to introduce new hygiene protocols for their vehicles and cages based on effective Bacticlense use.
There are lots of new products for both hand and surface disinfection which may not necessarily meet the correct standards for effectiveness or even safety. In the US we’ve seen hand sanitiser products containing methanol, which is a health risk, as well as some UK products only tested against bacteria, not viruses.
Hand sanitiser products, surface sanitisers and viricidal disinfectants should all be comprehensively tested and demonstrate both viricidal and bactericidal efficacy.
It’s not only the physical side of cleaning but the psychological effect that’s important in getting the industry back up and running: guests and staff will need reassurance. This is why using the right routine and chemicals can go a long way in getting us to the new normal as soon as possible, providing a level of reassurance for hoteliers and hospitality owners that they can confidently pass on to visitors.
www.christeyns.com
www.tsa-uk.org www.jsg.com
twitter.com/TomoCleaning
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