HYGIENE
37
The personal care industry: challenges in cleaning
Marcel Korevaar, Thomas Altmann, Kevin Nyssen – Ecolab Life Sciences
In a market driven by innovation, where every year a quarter of all cosmetic products are new or improved versions, personal care manufacturers strive to define and implement suitable cleaning and disinfection procedures, especially when dealing with a high number of different formulations in one site. The personal care industry produces a
large variety of consumer goods used for beautification and personal hygiene (for example, products for skin and hair care, personal hygiene, fragrances, sunscreens, and makeup). All of these segments have similar cleaning challenges, equipment designs, and regulatory requirements. The optimisation of the cleaning process
is critical for decreasing operational costs, downtime and for achieving the sustainability goals set by the company (such as the reduction of water, chemistry, and energy consumption). The aim of this article is to illustrate the
cleaning challenges commonly faced by cosmetic manufacturers, providing an initial guidance on how these procedures can be optimised, from the choice of chemistry, to the correct setup of the equipment available on site, and all while compliant with the requirements set by the industry.
Understanding the cleaning challenges and the requirements of the industry As of today, one of the main challenges for manufacturers of cosmetics is to keep manufacturing operations efficient in a constantly evolving scenario: “On average, large industry companies have a product portfolio of around 10,000 different cosmetic products and reformulate around 25% to 30% of their products every year. Out of these reformulations, about 10% depend on ingredients that are new to the market or to the cosmetic industry. Large companies introduce around 80 new ingredients to their product portfolio each year.”3 On top of this never-ending innovation, the
growing demand for multi-functional premium cosmetics is a trendsetter that implies an increase in the complexity of the formulations, making things harder for the producers when it comes to defining an optimised cleaning procedure (see next heading for a description of the main hard-to-clean ingredients). Another important market trend that is impacting the choice of cleaning products in
www.personalcaremagazine.com
the personal care industry, is the promotion of eco-friendly and biologically derived cosmetic ingredients. The choice of ingredients is important to the manufacturer in order that they comply with industry regulations set by the organic certification organisation selected (in the following section an overview of these specific requirements is provided). Besides being necessary to achieve certain
natural or organic claims on the final cosmetic product, an eco-friendly detergent can also be key for the achievement of the sustainability goals of the company, as a growing number of industry leaders are looking for innovative ways to become more sustainable. Lastly, for many multinational companies,
setting a global cleaning strategy is important to better control the quality of the final goods. Although a vast number of personal care products are produced globally with similar raw materials, local manufacturing sites often produce cosmetic products that are specific to a geography. Therefore, the manufacturing locations might
have different soils to clean as well as different equipment and limit settings, so not all cleaning solutions can be used identically on a global basis, but then optimised locally (see paragraph 1.3 for an overview of the main challenges in
WATERPROOF LIPSTICK
relation with the equipment available on site). Other regional differences in cleaning
validation may be applicable whether the cosmetic product meets the FDA definition of both a cosmetic and a drug, and if it is intended to be sold to US: antidandruff shampoos, toothpastes with fluoride, and makeup marketed with sun-protection claims typically fall into this category.
Hard to clean ingredients and requirements In the following section, different groups of ingredients commonly used in the industry are represented, as well as some recommendations for the cleaning agents to be used. Within these groups, new combinations or even new substances with similar features are often developed.
Waxy soils Large amounts of waxy soils inhibit the effect of aqueous cleaning on the soil due to their hydrophobic nature. As they repel water, a tenacious oily or waxy (fatty) layer can form on the surface of large areas and product residues can be left behind. Cleaning is performed using the synergistic action of wetting surfactants, in particular, (improving penetration into the soil)
Before Cleaning
After cleaning with a nonspecific detergent, at 80°C
After cleaning with a special formulated detergent, at 80°C
Figure 1: Stainless steel coupons to compare cleaning performances of a nonspecific detergent and a detergent formulated specifically for removing waxy soils.
January 2021 PERSONAL CARE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
