Cleaning & Sanitising

It is important that people working in the food industry understand that certain utensils and equipment require cleaning and sanitising in order to ensure the safety of the food, minimise the potential for the spread of harmful micro-organisms and to maintain a safe working environment.

The Food Standards Code requires a food business to ensure that certain equipment is in a clean and sanitary condition. This requirement applies to the following:

• Eating and drinking utensils immediately before each use
• The food contact surfaces of equipment wherever the food is likely to be contaminated.

This requirement is particularly important in regard to eating and drinking utensils such as cutlery, crockery and drinking glasses as well as food contact surfaces including counters, preparation benches, meat slicer/s, cutting boards and other equipment and appliances.

It is important therefore that the different terms cleaning, sanitising and sterilising are fully understood.

• Cleaning refers to the removal of visible items such as food particles, dirt, dust and grease and is usually carried out using warm water and detergent. Cleaning is not designed to remove all micro-organisms but merely removes the visible items such as dust, dirt, food spillage, food particles, grease etc.
• Sanitising refers to the process which reduces the number of micro-organisms to a safe level and this is usually undertaken using hot water and / or chemicals.
• Sterilising involves the destruction of all micro-organisms. Note that eating and drinking utensils and food contact surfaces are not required to be sterilised.

Who needs to know how to clean and sanitise?

Anyone who works in a food business needs to know how to clean and sanitise.

How can I clean?

The standard procedures for routine cleaning involve the following:

• Pre-clean, this involves scrape, wipe or sweep away food scraps and rinse with water.
• Wash using hot water at about 60°C and detergent to remove grease and dirt. The use of water at this temperature will require protective gloves.
• Rinse off any loose dirt or detergent residue.

How can I sanitise?

The next step in the process is to sanitise to reduce the number of germs. Sanitising, or it may be called disinfection, in the practical context of food premises can be carried out using either:

• Hot water: this can be achieved by immersing the article or equipment in hot water at a temperature of 70°C for at least 30 seconds.
• Hot water in a commercial dishwashing machine or Domestic dishwasher (subject to achieving the temperature requirements)
• Chemicals: Chemical sanitisers are generally either chlorine-based products, or quaternary ammonium compounds or iodine based compounds. Some sanitisers are toxic and must be rinsed off. The use of chemical sanitisers should be in accordance with the manufacturer's specification in regard to the dilution rate, contact time and safety precautions as well as safe storage arrangements. The articles or items should then be allowed to air dry.

Note that AS 2945 requires utensils to undergo a sanitising rinse at 80°C for 2 minutes or 75°C for 10 minutes or 70°C for 15 minutes.

As a guide, the following table provides some indication of how to dilute bleach.

Safety Precautions

When using domestic or commercial chlorine, certain safety precautions should be observed:

• Do not use hot water to dilute chlorine.
• Wear gloves when handling chlorine.
• Add bleach/chlorine to water not water to chlorine/bleach.
• Chlorine in high concentrations is corrosive to most metals.
• Store chlorine and all cleaning substances and equipment in a designated area
• Follow the manufacturer's guidelines

Manual washing using sink/s

Washing up manually in a double bowl sink generally does not meet the requirements for "sanitising" because of the inability of most hot water systems to achieve a temperature around 80°C and water at this temperature poses difficulties from an occupational health and safety issues perspective.

New Premises: Note that for new premises and the upgrade of existing premises the requirements of AS4674-2004 apply to sinks and dish/glass washers. In regard to sinks the temperature shall be at least 45°C for washing and 80°C for sanitising with provision for rinsing baskets. Dish/glass washers shall be in accordance with AS 2945 which requires utensils to undergo a sanitising rise at 80°C for 2 minutes or 75°C for 10 minutes or 70°C for 15 minutes.

Developing a regular cleaning and sanitising program

For health and safety reasons it is important that a food business maintain all fixtures, fittings, equipment and appliances in a clean and sanitised condition in order to minimise the potential contamination of food.

This requirement can be achieved by the business developing and implementing a regular cleaning and sanitising schedule specific for the premises. The schedule should be displayed in a conspicuous location so that all staff know their individual cleaning responsibilities.

The primary aim of a cleaning schedule is to prevent accumulations of grease, food wastes, dirt, dust, garbage and other miscellaneous items.

There are many ways of developing a cleaning schedule or program but a good idea is to list the various pieces of equipment within the business, whether it is in the kitchen, storeroom/s, dining area, bar, rear yard, toilets, garbage/recycling areas, staff clothing, cleaning cupboard etc.

Then, in regard to the kitchen, make a practical assessment as to how regularly the particular items need cleaning and sanitising. For example, a food contact surface such as a preparation bench may need cleaning and sanitising a number of times per day whereas shelves in a dry goods storeroom or the grease filters in a range hood will need less regular cleaning.

A person's name and realistic time periods should be allocated to the specified items or places and for each specific appliance or utensil or equipment. Whether all the cleaning and sanitising is carried out by one person or is allocated to a number of people will depend on each business but all items should be included on the written cleaning schedule.

Care should be taken to use protective clothing/gloves, if required and to know the correct procedure if an accident occurs. Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for the various chemicals used should be maintained in a known location. All cleaning chemicals and equipment should be stored in a designated location generally not in the kitchen. Remember that any cleaning schedule is only as good as the follow up supervision so each business operator should undertake regular checking of the cleaning program.

You may find this list of sanitiser suppliers useful.