Facility & Equipment Cleaning & Sanitation Procedures

Hi everyone,

Are there any requirements related to methods & frequencies of cleaning/sanitation of the Facility & Equipment? Most of the SOP examples that I've found on the web are for processors. Not alot of information for packagers. We produce folding carton paperboard packaging mainly in the beverage industry. Our goal is to enter the world of direct food contact packaging in the near future. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Shane

Hi everyone,

Are there any requirements related to methods & frequencies of cleaning/sanitation of the Facility & Equipment? Most of the SOP examples that I've found on the web are for processors. Not alot of information for packagers. We produce folding carton paperboard packaging mainly in the beverage industry. Our goal is to enter the world of direct food contact packaging in the near future. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Shane

Frequencies are generally based upon risk and history. If you have machine A scheduled for detail cleaning every 30 days, and it's never "dirty" enough when it comes up on the schedule, you may want to change the frequency to 45 or 60 days and then monitor. AFAIK, there are no requirements for frequency of cleaning, unless of course the manufacturer has some recommended frequency.

Methods are the same way. BRC requires that levels of acceptable and unacceptable cleaning are defined. They do not proscribe what those levels are, nor do they say how to achieve those levels. If dry cleaning is satisfactory to achieve a "clean" piece of equipment, there is not much point in introducing wet cleaning into the process. That being said, whatever cleaning method you choose, should not introduce a food safety hazard into the process.

Whatever "method" you choose to clean with does need to be validated for effectiveness. In a packaging operation, where there is little possibility of micro contamination, that may be something as simple as a visual inspection.

Marshall