Drying Food Contact Brushes
Hello All,
I was wondering if anyone out there can guide me on the best way for drying food contact brushes.
Blue hand brushes are used to clean down work surfaces and other food contact equipment.
In terms of manufacturing we blend dried ingredients - mainly powders.
After washing the brushes - what is the best way to dry them other than air drying?
Thanks
Yas
At my plant (cheese) we air dry the brushes. After use, they are scrubbed in the caustic, rinsed off, dipped in sanitizer, and hung up on dedicated racks. I have heard from other cheesemakers that they actually autoclave their brushes (those brushes are being used on washed rind cheeses and they contact the product). This cheesemaker was led to do this as they found that they had listeria on their brushes and they were spreading it all over their facility (scary). They lost an entire year of inventory. I am curious to hear what other people do, as I worry that we are not doing enough at my plant.
Was the cheesemaker with Listeria on their brushes sanitizing them after use? If not, then any microbio they picked up can still be there.
Blowing with air only risks getting other contamination on the brushes.
Dear CMHeywood,
Yes the cheesemaker was sanitizing the brushes. It is pretty freaky. One thing is that when you make a washed rind cheese, you actually brush/scrub the cheese. A lot of rind goop gets all in the bristles, and even if you try to clean the brush (and sanitize), it is very difficult to get all the stuff out of the bristles. I have been thinking about starting to monitor the brushes in my facility with swabbing, and I would be interested to know if anyone else does this.
Not a cheesemaker here, but at my infant formula packaging plant we use a drying oven for all food contact hand and vacuum brushes for a minimum two hours after cleaning and sanitizing. We also test them weekly in house for EB and APC and do annual validations of our cleaning process for allergen removal as well as sanitation at a tertiary lab. Testing results are typically in line with acceptance criteria.
Dear CMHeywood,
Yes the cheesemaker was sanitizing the brushes. It is pretty freaky. One thing is that when you make a washed rind cheese, you actually brush/scrub the cheese. A lot of rind goop gets all in the bristles, and even if you try to clean the brush (and sanitize), it is very difficult to get all the stuff out of the bristles. I have been thinking about starting to monitor the brushes in my facility with swabbing, and I would be interested to know if anyone else does this.
Not all washed rind cheeses have that, in fact I would suggest they change their process. Also they would do well to look at their brine microbiology as it's often kept by companies for a very long time.
Not a cheesemaker here, but at my infant formula packaging plant we use a drying oven for all food contact hand and vacuum brushes for a minimum two hours after cleaning and sanitizing. We also test them weekly in house for EB and APC and do annual validations of our cleaning process for allergen removal as well as sanitation at a tertiary lab. Testing results are typically in line with acceptance criteria.
What kind of drying oven do you use? we currently just leave brushes on dedicated racks to dry naturally - this takes too long and i worry they havent dried enough before next use (we handle dry powder blends only).
Dear CMHeywood,
Yes the cheesemaker was sanitizing the brushes. It is pretty freaky. One thing is that when you make a washed rind cheese, you actually brush/scrub the cheese. A lot of rind goop gets all in the bristles, and even if you try to clean the brush (and sanitize), it is very difficult to get all the stuff out of the bristles. I have been thinking about starting to monitor the brushes in my facility with swabbing, and I would be interested to know if anyone else does this.
Yes please let me know if any one does any swabbing (ATP maybe?) to validate cleaning of the brushes.
Thanks,
Yas
We use a Despatch brand lab bench drying oven. It seems to work fine for our purposes.