Changeover cleaning between White Flour vs. Whole Wheat Flour
I work in a bread manufacturer. We produce whole wheat bread and white bread among other items. There are no allergens used in the process. Due to production demands, we will run one batch of dough for white, then maybe three batches of whole wheat, then maybe two more white. How deep does the cleaning have to be in between changeovers from white to wheat ? Right now, we do a deep cleaning at the end of the shift, but is that enough? Does there have to be cleaning between each change on product? Thank you to all for the help.
You need to do a dry clean between different products with the same allergens and a wet clean between different allergens. Then, validate with swabs to be sure it is clean.
Yes I agree. You need to identify what you don't want in the white bread that is in the whole wheat and vice versa, e.g. the whole wheat grain. You then need to base your cleaning requirements around removing that element. With the best will in the world you may not be able to remove all of this material, especially as to ensure efficiency of your process this would be a dry interim clean. So you may want to put achievable standards and tolerances in too. As you have no allergens on site then I am guessing the cleaning process is more for quality and reducing the risk of customer dissatisfaction?
I work in a bread manufacturer. We produce whole wheat bread and white bread among other items. There are no allergens used in the process. Due to production demands, we will run one batch of dough for white, then maybe three batches of whole wheat, then maybe two more white. How deep does the cleaning have to be in between changeovers from white to wheat ? Right now, we do a deep cleaning at the end of the shift, but is that enough? Does there have to be cleaning between each change on product? Thank you to all for the help.
Hi SafeFood,
Perhaps you could enlighten us a little as to your objective in the changeover "cleaning" you refer ? eg allergen-related or ???
Where I work, the only allergen is wheat, which is in everything. I am looking at this more from a quality perspective. My last company used to wet clean between each product code and even after up to four batches of the same product code. That was a different environment, not bread, but supplements. However, trying to apply that same principle of cleaning between codes is more difficult in this industry because the demand and volume is greater. I believe what we do now works and based on swabbing, effective. I just want to be sure I am following the best practice according to the regulations. I appreciate the help everyone.
Hi SafeFood,
Thks for above.
So what are yr criteria for a satisfactory cleaning ? I guess that is what yr OP is actually querying ?.
It's certainly a quality issue. You don't want the presence of WW in your white products.
Wouldn't it be simpler to just run all of the white products then change over to WW?
Marshall
It really depends on what quality you want to deliver to your customers.
There is no food safety issue so even if you do not clean in between there is no problem.
the way we do it here (production of seeds for the baking industry) is dry clean, with air, during product changes and dispose of the first 5 kg of product that go over the line (amount of kg depends on the lenght of the line).
This ensure us that there is no cross contamination.