Cleaning and Sanitation
The role and effective cleaning play an important role in reducing the risk of allergenic contamination as very small amounts of some allergens, such as nuts, milk or eggs, can cause adverse reactions, including potentially fatal anaphylactic shock. Therefore, thorough cleaning that is effective in reducing the risks of allergen cross-contamination should be used.
Particular food materials (for example powders) present significant cleaning problems, and any relevant industry guidance where this has been developed, should be followed. Adequate procedures must be in place for cleaning both production and packaging machinery. Where adequate cleaning is not possible the risk of allergen cross-contamination should be assessed and advisory labelling used, if appropriate
Food workers responsibility in relation to risks of cross contamination
- Follow a daily cleaning schedule and keep a record of your cleaning activities.
- Where possible, use designated, colour-coded cleaning equipment to clean areas where allergen-free foods are prepared.
- Regularly launder your protective clothing.
- Thoroughly clean food preparation surfaces after using allergenic ingredients.
- Carefully clean up any spillages of allergenic ingredients as soon as they occur. Use a single-use cloth, not a reusable one.
- Ensure that food handling equipment such as mixers, blenders processors and weighing scales, is cleaned thoroughly before using it for an allergen free product.
Cleaning practices that are satisfactory for hygiene purposes may not be adequate for removing some allergens and their validity for such a purpose should be assessed (for example via residue/environmental swab testing). Equipment may need to be dismantled and manually cleaned to ensure hard to clean areas are free from allergen residues.
Cleaning - Other Considerations
Care is needed to ensure that the cleaning of one line does not contaminate another (using compressed air cleaning, for example), or an area that has already been cleaned (by cleaning dry mix areas from the top down).
Any spillages that occur during production, storage and transportation should be cleaned up immediately to ensure that there is no subsequent allergen cross-contamination. Where known allergen contamination has occurred, the contaminated material should be labelled and physically moved away from the non-contaminated ingredients and work-in-progress.
Equipment might need to be dismantled and manually cleaned to ensure hard to reach areas are free from allergen residues. At this point, consideration should be given to maintenance activities, such as the use of dedicated tools or adequate cleaning.
