Introduction to Validation
Cleaning is one of the very important process in any allergen management. Food producer must ensure that there are procedures to ensure if their cleaning regimen is fit for purpose.
Food manufacturers and processors depends on a variety of differing procedures to enforce allergen controls. These include personnel controls, such as a hand-washing procedure and the use of protective clothing and equipment (PPE), process controls such as segregated storage and color-coded equipment, production controls such as dedicated equipment and time segregation, and – most importantly – cleaning.
Cleaning regimens are subject to rigorous validation. Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) retailer approval schemes such as the British Retail Consortium (BRC) state, "Where cleaning procedures are part of a defined prerequisite plan to control the risk of a specific hazard the cleaning and disinfection procedures and frequency shall be validated…" In simple terms, this means that the validation process should demonstrate that the cleaning procedure a site is using reduces the hazard – in this case, an allergen – to a level deemed to be acceptable.
The following steps can be considered by Food Business Operators to ensure system of cleaning in relation to allergen control is in place and is validated.
1) Identify the Team
2) Determine the objective of the cleaning
3) Review current cleaning program.
4) Hygiene design of equipment
5) Determine the worst-case scenario for the soiling
6) Sampling and testing
7) Carry out the validation
8) Interpreting the results
9) Verify Validation
