Cleaning versus food safety

If the structure and the criteria for cleaning activities are properly defined, monitored, adjusted as necessary and optimised, the food safety risks can be managed while also reducing the cleaning costs. However, this requires company executives to make a number of fundamental decisions. The challenge lies in striking the right balance between risks and costs.

Besides supplying cleaning agents, Eco2Clean advises and supports companies in relation to hygiene and cleaning. When drawing up or analysing a cleaning plan, the first question Eco2Clean always asks is whether it is essential for a cleaning activity to be performed and, if so, how often. The supplier sees many real-life examples of cleaning procedures stemming from routine, habit or past incidents; they are not reviewed regularly. A considered approach to risk management reduces food safety risks by taking appropriate measures at the right time. It also includes a critical assessment of activities that do not pose a direct risk to food safety. Often, it turns out to be possible to make substantial optimisation gains without increasing the food safety risks.

A customer in their own words

A bakery manufacturer explains: “Quality and innovation are high on our agenda. This means that we also maintain high standards of hygiene within our production processes, because these are inextricably linked to the ultimate quality of our end products.” Although nothing had been changed in terms of the process and standard conditions, the company experienced unexpected problems on one of its production lines. Therefore, it decided to perform extensive cleaning within the company. “We immediately contacted Eco2Clean and asked them to provide us with full support in preparing for and executing this cleaning project. We have a good long-standing relationship with Eco2Clean, and they regularly advise us on cleaning and hygiene. Eco2Clean drew up a plan of attack, highlighting all the critical points, and took care of coordinating the work to implement their advice and recommendations. The company’s knowledge and experience was of essential importance in enabling us to solve the problem.”

‘Eco2Clean has considerably stimulated our organisation’s ability to learn’

Pragmatic approach

Before carrying out the cleaning work, it was necessary to gain clear insight into the critical points relating to cleaning and disinfection. “We sat down together to talk about the problems but very soon we found ourselves back on the factory floor, where the action actually happens, to investigate the cause – and that’s typical of Eco2Clean’s pragmatic approach. One of the tips we received was to adapt the design of the washing unit and blancher in order to prevent blind spots and empty pipes. Another suggestion was to take a critical look at the complex and illogical route taken by the water and the product during washing and blanching. The routing had evolved over the years, but it could be made much simpler and easier to clean.”

“Hans Burger, Hygiene Consultant at Eco2Clean, helped to manage our cleaning crews during this project and he also a critical review of the cleaning plan. We set to work with that, re-evaluated our cleaning methods and went through our cleaning instructions and frequencies. Taking Hans’ advice, we’ve also integrated the cleaning with the machine maintenance. When the machines are taken apart, it’s possible to access places that the daily cleaning activities can’t reach. Eco2Clean’s strength lies in pointing out the possible bottlenecks in practice and letting customers experience them for themselves, which prompts people to think about them more closely. This considerably stimulated our company’s ability to learn. Moreover, a potential cleaning problem was tackled in advance simply by recommending the use of a different cleaning agent.”

Room for improvement

The customer received a report containing recommendations, which has been taken very seriously. “Based on these recommendations, we’ve gone a step further in our factory in terms of managing the critical points and eliminating causes. We even organised various sessions with the operatives for each process system to re-assess whether the critical points have been identified sufficiently.” The customer continues: “The results have been surprising; those sessions revealed a number of extra areas for improvement. Our quality system is good but this just goes to show that, in practice, there’s always room for improvement on the periphery. Eco2Clean has helped us to take a fresh new look at our hygiene.”

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