Organic cleaner-destroy mustard allergen

at my new post, on top of CFIA, and SQF are also certified organic. There are currently "cleaning" with chlorine when mustard seed is used then swabbing to ensure there is no residual (yeah for that).  However, we all know that that is not cleaning....

The organic rules are very particular about what classifies as biodegradable, which is great, I can find cleaners that fit the bill. My quandry is, will 12% acetic acid destroy the protein in the mustard so I can remove the chlorine all together?

Any insights are appreciated!!!

I doubt it would destroy the protein reliably.  I would focus on removing the debris and any soiling not relying on chemical inactivation of the allergen.

I agree with GMO. I am also in an organic facility, and we use chlorine as well as PAA for sanitizers. I think that the best thing to do is to thoroughly clean the area in order to remove the allergen, and then sanitize per usual. I have been told that ATP swabs don't really count for verifying the removal of allergens (we were doing that), and that the best way is to do a rinse water test. Good luck.

I already swab with a mustard swab kit..........i'm trying to change the way things are "cleaned"  around here (they've been ahem, cleaning with chlorine)  So no protein residue, but not really a clean and sanitize process

I have found a commercially available product approved as biodegradable and approved in food processing, Crystal Simple Green. It is the same as the stuff available to us all in the grocery or hardware store, but much more concentration.  The person who emailed me is the VP of R&D and quickly sent me all of the analysis etc I required.  Just waiting on boss man to make a decision

I'm hoping that we can sanitize with 12% vinegar and that the 2 together are sufficient to remove the protein.

Thanks to you both

I mean, cleaning is the action of removing soils and debris from equipment so that it's ready to be sanitized, so you don't technically have to use soap if it isn't necessary for your process. Mechanical action can be plenty sufficient (see many dry cleaning methods throughout this forum and elsewhere) to remove residues without the need for a soap or soak with water (esp. if you want to keep it dry). And chlorine can be used as a cleaning agent, it's not a good detergent/surfactant but it is excellent at penetrating and removing biofilms, offering some level of "cleaning" when combined with mechanical action.

I have many dry areas in my facility where we use sanitizer only as a dampening agent to assist with dust removal and "cleaning" followed by a spritz or wipe down with sanitizer to sanitize. If you don't need a detergent don't get hung up on one. But I 100% agree with GMO that relying on inactivation of allergen proteins rather than just removing them is a bad longterm plan. In addition, make sure that your residual chlorine doesn't cause false negatives on the swabs themselves.

FFF---I understand that (been in the business a very long time) but this is my first time dealing with organic production.Our process required an actual detergent to do the heavy lifting to replace manual scrubbing, the alternative is a power washer spraying organic material all over and causing areosols.

Trying to make 4 different audit schemes happy at one time while trying to remove chlorine from the post processing altogether.