Use your common sense

Agents used for cleaning and disinfection in the food industry must not leave traces in foodstuffs. Therefore, the cleaning plans and safety worksheets of a cleaning and disinfection agent, such as sodium hypochlorite, state that you should always rinse thoroughly with clean water. And then again. Is it gone? No longer detectable?

Certifiers visiting for an audit are increasingly asking food manufacturers to demonstrate that the food product is free from any residues of cleaning agents. At least once a month, we have a desperate food manufacturer calling, "Can you demonstrate in an analysis that there is no detergent residue in my products?"
The answer is often disappointing to them: "No, unfortunately. Measurements for detergent residue can sometimes be done, but in the vast majority of cases is impossible."
Meanwhile, I wonder: do certifying bodies even know exactly what they are asking for?

Auditors ask the impossible of a food company. In some cases it is still possible to check whether after cleaning and disinfection of surfaces, residues and remains of cleaning agents are still present. But in a food product once prepared, residues are often impossible to find. Active chlorine, for example, is a powerful oxidizer, especially in an organic environment of fats, carbohydrates and proteins; the composition of our food. Chlorine is then no longer detectable as a residue. 

Demonstrating detergents in food does not seem to me to be the way to go. Peroxides and hypochlorite are often used in the food, but also in the pharmaceutical industry. We apply it to our skin, bleach our hair with it. Is this a health hazard? What are the considerations? 

BRC and ISO22000 talk about residual risks. I challenge certifiers and auditors to use their common sense.

Pieter Vos
Director Nutrilab