12 - Cleaning and disinfection of chilled food plants and equipment

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the hygiene practices that are used to maintain a hygienic manufacturing infrastructure, specifically those related to cleaning and disinfection. Contamination in chilled food products may arise from four main sources: the constituent raw materials, surfaces (including people), liquids and the air. Provided that the process environment and production equipment have been hygienically designed, cleaning and disinfection (referred to together as sanitation) are the major day-to-day controls of the hard surface vectors of food product contamination and, if effective, can reduce sources of micro-organisms within the processing environment. In addition, and for the high care/risk area, sanitation practices are the only processes that can control microbial cross-contamination within food processing areas. When undertaken correctly, sanitation programs have been shown to be cost-effective and easy to manage, and, if diligently applied, can reduce the risk of microbial or foreign body contamination. Given the intrinsic demand for high standards of hygiene in the production of short shelf-life chilled foods, together with pressure from customers, consumers and legislation for ever-increasing hygiene standards, sanitation demands the same degree of attention as any other key process in the manufacture of safe and wholesome chilled foods. The chapter focuses on the sanitation of hard surfaces only—equipment, floors, walls and utensils.