Allergen Cleaning Validation

Hello,

For a food plant, does a cleaning validation for milk allergen subsequently cover all allergens, on the claim that milk is the hardest allergen to remove?  Specifically, would this be sufficient for the FDA, or you if you were a customer asking about the allergen control program?

Thanks!

Here we had to show validation for each allergen as the test is specific to that allergen. One could argue that on validation you could test finished product for absence of allergenic material (if something like Raw chicken). We use rapid tests on verification on wash-downs between products containing Milk and none and product containing gluten and none (CIP during production) 

Hi John!

Thank you for the response!  When you say "here" do you mean in the UK?  Is the requirement that each allergen has validated cleaning?  I don't like the idea of testing finished product for the allergen, as it is past the point of no return at that stage.  Do you only perform the verification on those 2, and not any other alergens?  If so, why no others?

Thanks again!

Hi scottaha,

I have no idea about FDA but you can see SQF's interpretation/response to yr OP query in the extract from their Code attached below. Particularly see the text following "Validation" on Pg 64 -

SQF Cleaning validation - allergens.pdf   49.48KB   280 downloads