Can i get some feedback from people regarding the use of compressed air for cleaning. Is it an acceptable practice? What are the risks? Thanks
RTE products such as candies, nuts, pretzels, etc. are packaged in the same room, with multiple allergens running at the same time. Allergen runs are scheduled appropriately. At times during the cleaning process at end of day, compressed air is used to blow product of belts and tight places before a wet wash down is performed.
Hi Mike,
I wouldn't say there is anything generally wrong with using compressed air for cleaning. In most low risk environments, you'd just need to do compressed air testing to make sure the amounts of particulates, water, and oil meet the class of compressed air and environmental standards you need, and air testing for micro to make sure the process won't negatively affect your equipment.
However, I agree with Charles, in that your environment (multiple allergens in the same room) could be very dangerous, and I definitely wouldn't consider this a low risk area based on your explanation. Unless you have a way of moving your equipment or otherwise totally covering the machines before the cleaning process, I would think at the least you would need to be swabbing for allergens everyday after the wash down to make sure the equipment is free of allergens before the next run. You would also need to validate that process, and ensure that the compressed air does not cause contamination itself with any possible allergen buildup blowing back on the areas you want to clean.
If you are in fact putting disclaimers on your products, be aware that some GFSI standards (including BRC) may frown upon allergen disclaimers, especially if the process could be controlled. Per BRC, "The use of a warning label should be justifiable on the basis of the risk assessment and should not be a substitute for good manufacturing practices". Basically, they will only agree on justification if there is no way you can control the allergens. Without knowing your process, I don't know whether you could control the allergens or not. It does seem there is a way to control them though if I were to just use your explanation without knowing the details.
QAGB
