Food and Cleaning Materials

Which cleaning materials should I use?

Selection of the correct cleaning materials often requires expert technical advice. Mistakes either in the choice of chemical or its use, for example, using the wrong strength, temperature or contact time may have serious consequences. It may lead to tainting or chemical contamination of food or premature corrosion of equipment.

Listed below are some common terms used to describe types of cleaning materials:

Detergent - a chemical used to remove grease, dirt and other soiling such as food particles. Detergents may remove large numbers of micro-organisms but will not kill them.
Disinfectant - something which will reduce micro-organism numbers to a level which is safe and will not cause premature spoilage of food. Disinfection may brought about by "disinfectant chemicals" or simply by applying heat e.g. using very hot water.
Steriliser - a chemical designed to kill all micro-organisms.
Sanitiser - a chemical which combines the properties of detergents and disinfectants. It will therefore clean and disinfect surfaces.

So why have a written cleaning schedule?

It is an offence to sell food which is unfit, substandard or which may cause harm to the person consuming it. The principal defence available to a person accused of selling such food is one of due diligence. This requires them to prove they "took all reasonable precautions and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence". Whilst there is no legal requirement for a documented cleaning schedule, written records would be considered extremely important when trying to establish a defence in cases where, for example, dirt or foreign objects had found their way into a food product.
It clearly demonstrates that measures are in place to control food safety hazards (these are different from health and safety chemical hazards controlled by separate regulations - COSHH), even though written records are not necessarily a legal requirement.
Having identified all the areas and equipment that require cleaning, it provides a checklist to help ensure things are not missed.
It makes it clear to staff what their cleaning duties are and what cleaning materials are safe/appropriate.

It is very important that once the schedule has been set up it is monitored to ensure areas or equipment have not been missed off and that cleaning staff are following it correctly. To assist you a Cleaning Schedule Template and a Cleaning Monitoring Checklist can be downloaded on the right.