WHITE PAPER • Alcohol-based disinfectants provide a means to disinfect equipment with a very minimal introduction of water, but water should be avoided as much as possible. • Sanitation programs should be monitored for their effectiveness and verified by visual observations and, where applicable, environmental monitoring. The Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), and associated Certification Programme Owners (CPOs), such as the British Retail Consortium Global Standard (BRCGS), ISO’s Food Safety System Certification 22000 (FSSC 22000), the International Featured Standard (IFS), and Safe Quality Food (SQF), etc., greatly reference Codex Alimentarius (CODEX) guidance when developing their benchmarks and standard requirements. FSSC22000 ISO_TS_22002-1_2009: Prerequisite programmes on food safety - Part 1: Food manufacturing Section 8.5 on cleaning plant, utensils, and equipment states that: “Wet and dry cleaning programmes shall be documented to ensure that all plant, utensils and equipment are cleaned at defined frequencies.” Industry Guidance In addition, organisations such as the European Hygienic Engineering & Design Group (EHEDG) and 3-A SSI offer testing and certification related to low-moisture food processing equipment and have published useful guidance related to dry cleaning, including • Guideline 2: A Method for Assessing the In-place Cleanability of Food Processing Equipment • Guideline 45: Cleaning Validation, Monitoring and Verification. • Guideline 52: Basic Principles of Cleaning and Disinfection in Food Manufacturing • Cleanability of Equipment and the Role of the 3-A Sanitary Standards (11) . EHEDG also offer Type ED Certification for Dry Cleaning Equipment as: ED Class I (closed equipment dry cleaned only without dismantling) and ED Class II (closed or open equipment dismantled for dry cleaning only) (12) . Control of potential contamination of low moisture foods by food safety hazards should therefore focus on prevention through implementation of efficient sanitation procedures in the food processing environment. Additionally, food processing environments in which low moisture foods are handled must be maintained at low humidity and be kept dry. This gives rise to the need for specific dry sanitation practices. DRY SANITATION STRATEGIES The 5-Star approach A comprehensive dry sanitation strategy is greatly dependent on five key factors, as defined by the 5-Star Approach (Figure 1): Figure 1: The 5-Star Sanitation Approach Vikan A/S - Department of Hygiene Copyright © 2023 Vikan A/S · All Rights Reserved 04
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