Water hoses for food contact surfaces
Been a long time... missed y'all.
The previous QA Manager at my current position had everyone convinced that water hoses used on food contact surfaces "needed to be clear in order to see if there was any buildup inside..."
I've been in maybe... two dozen food processing facilities and never seen this practice. Am I wrong in thinking this particular young lady was crazy? Assuming we test our water regularly for potability, get the annual city water report, have proper backflow devices in place, buy food grade hoses and store the hoses even remotely properly... what in the world is my maintenance department spending an inordinate amount of money on for inflexible clear hoses?
If the hoses were sitting full of water and unused for weeks at a time perhaps. Otherwise I'm thinking the previous QA Manager took the course, "Overkill 101" as an elective. Taking a wild guess, my money says she got an "A" in the course.
We tended to use clear hoses for water used into food products, as if there was a build up on algae etc. though lack of use it was easy to spot and replace.
For hoses for cleaning food equipment etc,, which is what I think you are talking about, we used normal reinforced cleaning hoses (as we used medium pressure systems) that can be purchased for your chemical company, which were totally adequate. After final rinsing you would always spray the equipment and surfaces with a sanitiser as well.
Having come from a dairy background, my experience suggests that the use of hoses will distribute listeria and may not be particularly useful in cleaning. I realise that they are essential in some areas (manual cleaning of tanks etc.) but they should be used with care.
If the hoses were sitting full of water and unused for weeks at a time perhaps. Otherwise I'm thinking the previous QA Manager took the course, "Overkill 101" as an elective. Taking a wild guess, my money says she got an "A" in the course.
Exactly... that's what I was thinking. I mentioned this in passing to my old boss (Ph.D in micro, 20 years in the food industry) and he said, and I quote, "Who the f*@& uses clear hoses??"
I have 10 years and I've never seen this before.
I have 10 years and I've never seen this before.
We all have our idiosyncrasies and bias. Fortunately, those of us born with a common sense gland can *usually* mitigate our stupidity. But the reality is, someone will come after us and wonder why the &#$*! we did something a certain way. That, and we'll never know everything in this business - we just need to control that risk as best as possible.
We tended to use clear hoses for water used into food products, as if there was a build up on algae etc. though lack of use it was easy to spot and replace.
For hoses for cleaning food equipment etc,, which is what I think you are talking about, we used normal reinforced cleaning hoses (as we used medium pressure systems) that can be purchased for your chemical company, which were totally adequate. After final rinsing you would always spray the equipment and surfaces with a sanitiser as well.
I can see using clear hoses for that unless the hose is included in a regular CIP and suited to that purpose;
Having come from a dairy background, my experience suggests that the use of hoses will distribute listeria and may not be particularly useful in cleaning. I realise that they are essential in some areas (manual cleaning of tanks etc.) but they should be used with care.
A training I attended included a slide that showed a graph of detected bacteria in aerosols corresponding to the pressure of water used. I found the citation for it in the past but was unable to find the actual study. Most plant sanitation operations I have been around use low pressure as defined in that study. But I do know there's plants out there that use higher pressure, above 600 psi and if I recall correctly, that's where a lot of aerosols were observed.
If anyone knows of a similar study, I'd love to find it and add it to my library.
I don't see anything wrong with this.
I demand that all water hoses used for cleaning not only be made of inflexible clear material, but after use they be thoroughly rinsed out with a sanitizer solution, dried with forced hot air, (filtered, of course), nitrogen flushed and the hose fittings hermetically sealed.
Yes, it costs a bit more in labor and materials, but one cannot be too careful, don't ya know.
Marshall
I'm confused. how can you bundle up water hose if it's inflexible ?
I'm confused. how can you bundle up water hose if it's inflexible ?
Exactly. That's one of the issues we are having.
All of our product contact cleaning brushes are blue, so I'm looking for blue hoses.
I don't see anything wrong with this.
I demand that all water hoses used for cleaning not only be made of inflexible clear material, but after use they be thoroughly rinsed out with a sanitizer solution, dried with forced hot air, (filtered, of course), nitrogen flushed and the hose fittings hermetically sealed.
Yes, it costs a bit more in labor and materials, but one cannot be too careful, don't ya know.
Marshall
Just curious, what are you producing?
Just curious, what are you producing?
I'm guessing he was being mildly sarcastic, but I could be wrong.
Mildly? Hah!!
Marshall
:clap:
I thought so with the "but one cannot be too careful, don't ya know." but I didn't want to laugh just in case you were serious. Kinda like asking a woman whom you don't have direct knowledge she's pregnant, "When are you due?" One cannot be too careful, don't ya know.