In house laundering

Hi, I work for a company that produces Rapeseed oil, it is not classed as high risk. 

We launder our overalls in house just with normal washing powder (fragrance free) on a 60 degree wash then tumbled dried.

We have a BRC audit looming upon us in a few weeks and just wandered if anyone else does there laundry in house and is this suffiecient?

If not what does everyone else do?  Also how often should they be laundered?

Any response would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks

Deanna

Hello Deanna,

We do overall laundering in house also (spice grinding and cleaning plant). Some auditor a few years back made a remark that the temperature should be 90 deg. So we put a label on the washing machine that says "use program No xxx with 90 deg min". That has been enough for the next auditors.

We wash the clothes when they get dirty and do not keep a record of that. But I am afraid that some scheduled washing will be the next requirement.

Best Regards,

Jyrki

thanks for your reply jyrki

Do you have to use an odour free detergent if so which do you use?

Deanna

Just had the results back from the lab for swabbing the cleaned overalls does anyone know what the spec for being clean would be I would have thought 0 if that's the case I am buying a new washing machine :eek_yello:

The standard we use is <1000 cfu/cm³ for TVC, 

<100 cfu/cm³ Staph Aureus 

<10 for E. coli

Absent for Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella

And it's your drying temperature that is the critical one not the washing.

The standard we use is <1000 cfu/cm³ for TVC, 

<100 cfu/cm³ Staph Aureus 

<10 for E. coli

Absent for Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella

 

And it's your drying temperature that is the critical one not the washing.

For me less than 10 E.Coli seems to be more. Presence of E.Coli itself is not acceptable since it is a pathogen. I don't think it is important to follow a proper drying or washing temperatures once you have validated your procedure effective against all microbes. By this way, your procedure can be justified.

Hi, I work for a company that produces Rapeseed oil, it is not classed as high risk. 

 

We launder our overalls in house just with normal washing powder (fragrance free) on a 60 degree wash then tumbled dried.

 

We have a BRC audit looming upon us in a few weeks and just wandered if anyone else does there laundry in house and is this suffiecient?

 

If not what does everyone else do?  Also how often should they be laundered?

 

Any response would be greatly appreciated.

 

Many thanks

 

Deanna

Hi Deanna,

BRC Guidelines 7.4.3 states 'In-house laundry should be controlled via HACCP style principles - controls and validation data for monitoring temperature and detergent, specifying items not to be washed together, overseeing the drying process and visual inspection.'

It may be of interest that for home laundering it states 'clothes should be ironed with a hot iron to further heat disinfect the clothes'

I am not sure overalls will stand washing at 90 C for long, the important thing is you have a process of washing (temp & det conc) drying and possibly ironing which is validated. Your procedures also segregate overalls where there is a risk e.g. Engineers/Laboratory overalls

Changes will need to be reasonable and consider how quickly they are soiled.

Regards,

Tony

For me less than 10 E.Coli seems to be more. Presence of E.Coli itself is not acceptable since it is a pathogen. I don't think it is important to follow a proper drying or washing temperatures once you have validated your procedure effective against all microbes. By this way, your procedure can be justified.

The limit for E. coli takes into account the limits of detection for the enumeration method used. You could use presence/absence but having a enumeration is useful if you have a positive sample.

I have researched this issue thoroughly when issue 6 came out and the information I have states that it is the drying cycle which is the more important as this is the kill step. This is why they recommend a hot iron because in-house laundries may not have the big gas dryers used commercially.

However, I have had a number of discussions with BRC auditors on this issue and they say that once you validate your cleaning with swab results that is acceptable.

Dear Deanna Ketteringham,

Assuming you do find yourself obliged to enter the validation / swabbing route, the attachments / links in this (slightly ageing) post might give you a few ideas of the scenario in commercial enterprises -

http://www.ifsqn.com...ing/#entry33629

Rgds / Charles.C