As of yesterday, March 20, spring has officially arrived! This
means warmer weather, longer daylight hours, blooming flowers and spring
cleaning! Chances are you are least excited about the latter, so we’ve got some
helpful cleaning tips for candy manufacturers taken from an article published
in the January 2004 issue of The
Manufacturing Confectioner and written by Susan Hough of Masterson Company.
Use Soap and Water
The most effective way to clean equipment is
with soap and water. It is a real search and destroy mission that should not be
taken lightly. Just scraping or using water alone will not be effective.
Oil
Flushes for Oil-Based Products
If you are working with an all-oil-based product (and no sugars to
help dissolve the product away), you may have to start with several oil flushes
first before introducing water or chemicals. Without the oil flushes, the
chemicals can extract out the oil, leaving behind solid masses cemented to the
pipes or agitators of your vessel. If you absolutely cannot get water near your
systems and have a completely dry process, you may want to try dry CO2 pellet
cleaning.
Checklists Are a Must
Checklists for the system, identifying all the equipment requiring
dismantling, cleaning and inspection, are a must. There are several ways of
verifying the effectiveness of the cleanup. A good verification doesn’t trust
just one verification method, but is successful through the collective use of
several.
Use Your Senses
Especially when it comes to cleaning equipment exposed to
allergens, it is important to visually inspect and use your sense of smell. As
mentioned earlier, you need to open up and visually inspect every area
possible. The sense of smell can be useful in the case of allergens such as
peanuts. Even in very minute amounts, the smell of the peanut can be a telltale
sign of a hidden cleaning issue. A further verification uses some of the more
quantative tests available today. You could utilize ATP testers (especially if
a particular allergenic protein has no test kit yet available). It should be
noted that this method will not tell you how much PPM residue you have, and is
not as effective on proteins that have been heat treated.
Protein Test Kits
Test kits for peanuts approved by the AOAC Research Institute as
performance tested include Biokits Peanut Assay; Ridascreen Fast Peanut; and
Veratox for Peanut. These kits can be used to test the actual product, do swabs
of your equipment or test the rinse water off a system after cleaning. It
should be noted that although many of them are relatively easy, they can take
45 to 60 minutes to complete.
After cleaning is completed, the system should be additionally
inspected and signed off by a management person to verify the cleanup. The more
eyes (and noses) involved, the less chance something will be missed.
Cleaning large equipment can be a daunting task. With proper cleaning methods and verification, you can rest assured you're following Good Manufacturing Processes (GMPs) and your equipment is ready for the spring season! Happy Cleaning!
Cleaning large equipment can be a daunting task. With proper cleaning methods and verification, you can rest assured you're following Good Manufacturing Processes (GMPs) and your equipment is ready for the spring season! Happy Cleaning!
