Using different Sanitizers at different times of the year

Hi everyone,

I need some helpful guidance on this matter. I was hired recently at this current role. It is a spice/seasoning manufacturer/distributer. I have been looking closely at their sanitation program because I believe it does need a few improvements. For food contact surfaces, they use both Quat Ammonium & Chloro. However, I have been told they use Quat for like a certain period and then switch to chloro. Quat they use from like July-September and chloro from october-december. I have asked my predecessor about this, and she told me her predecessor put that into place. I am failing to see the reasoning behind this. Why not just use one sanitizer all year round? Especially if its verified and validated to be effective. Has anyone experienced something like this? Thank you!

In my experience USDA recommends the rotating of sanitizers. For lack of a better scientific phrase...so that bacteria does not become accustom to the same sanitizer. It's good practice.

Resistance to Sanitizers

Any time a chemical is used to produce microbial mortality, the possibility of promoting resistance exists.... This is because not all of the microbes are killed.  The sanitizer could have just missed these 10 organisms or they could inherently be immune. If these 10 microbes are indeed immune, over time they will proliferate, and the usual sanitizing concentration and/or chemical will no longer produce acceptable mortality. 
 

we call it shocking the microbes by changing then sanitizer.. ...your predecessor was on the right track.. which maybe you wanna keep

same applies with you when you take antibiotics

Yes, common practice as others have mentioned. Do place the reasoning behind it in your FSMS documentation if not already noted.

_{There was some research published last autumn and subsequent coverage of bacteria becoming more resistant to alcohol based sanitisers, and anti-biotic resistant seems to be a very real and dangerous threat that I feel people aren't quite concerned enough about.}

_{https://www.jiac-j.c...0271-X/fulltext}

_{https://www.npr.org/...ers-study-finds}

_{An interesting - and somewhat concerning - topic though and I'm curious how the industry will adapt to these kind of challenges over time. I.e. is it also feasible there may be a time when bacteria evolve to be more heat resistant than the materials we can use for cooking? :dunno:} 

Thank you all! 

Question again though, is there a reason for choosing those months? Or I can just alternate between them? Anyone has any article about this? Also would you recommend this chloro sanititzer? They just seem to fill in buckets of water and add a random amount of chloro in there. (yes I got hired into a chaotic company hoping to improve many things). We use Quat/chloro for non-allergens and Dry San Duo (from Ecolab) for allergens. 

You can alternate as you'd like - my guess is over months (whichever months chosen) is easier to make the switch for the crew than say weekly - you were suppose to use the other sanitizer on Fridays! kinda thing. 

• Scrub surfaces during cleaning to prevent biofilms from occurring. Biofilms are thin layers of microorganisms that adhere to product contact surfaces. Lm and other bacteria can adapt to the environment over time and form biofilms. Biofilms are difficult to remove, and they may protect Lm from the effects of sanitizers.
   
• Follow the manufacturer’s recommendations for sanitizer strength and application to ensure it is effective. Many sanitizers, when used as recommended, are effective against Lm, including those containing quaternary ammonia compounds, chlorine solutions, and organic acids. Generally, increasing the sanitizer strength above the recommended levels will not increase the efficacy of the sanitizer and may result in harmful levels of the sanitizer in foods.
   
• Rotate (change) sanitizers as needed to provide more effective bacterial control. Alternating sanitizers (e.g., quaternary ammonia and bleach) may help prevent Lm from establishing niches in the environment and forming biofilms. For example, retailers can use quaternary ammonia on the week days and bleach on the weekends when rotating sanitizers.

I think it should go with your supposed   bacterial load and the risk you may encounter

 Say the quat has a 5-log reduction (99.999%) - that  means if your initial load was 1,000,000 Salmonella cells - only 10 have survived. and, say those 10 have grown  resistant- how quickly can those 10 multiply to produce other resistant baby salmonellas.. And how quick do you want to remove them from your machines?

maybe  every last Friday of the month you shock them with Chlorine and  you use quat all the time... assuming you are not making Meat or any other high risk product  - for that I would recommend weekly shock

or maybe use alcohol... no one  ,man. woman, animal or food borne microbe can resist alcohol....

You definitely need to make sure that they are checking the titration of chemical sanitizer. If your chlorine level is too low, it will not be effective in destruction of remaining bacteria/pathogens. If it is too high, you run the risk of contaminating product if you are using as a no-rinse sanitizer. Overuse of chlorine could also result in equipment degradation and rusting and possible employee injury. For chlorine based sanitizers, you will want to be somewhere between 100-200 PPM total chlorine. This can be easily checked using chlorine test strips. I'm not sure of your Quat based sanitizer makeup, but the desired ppm for that is likely 200-400. Again, quat can be checked using test strips. Please check your SDS sheets to ensure that you are within the specified ranges for concentration. I would advise looking into purchasing chemicals from a company like ecolab. They will come in and train on how to use their products, both for employee safety and effective food safety.

Hi Food Scientist,

The possible consequences of antibiotic over-usage are a popular topic in Pharmaceutical World, Pesticides, et al.

Possibilities here might relate to specific identity of  "chloro" ?

Significance  of "allergens" is unclear to me ?

Some typical usage information should be available from Ecolab.

Personally I wonder if the rotation aspect  is a myth.

PS - from a quick google -

(1)

Chemical sanitizer use in the U.S. food industry is regulated by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, and, by law, users must adhere to label instructions. Approved-use concentrations of hard-surface sanitizers are greater than the tolerable range for microbes normally encountered in food processing. With this in mind, no evidence exists that proper use of sanitizers in food processing will result in the development of a resistant microorganism population.

 

Is it necessary to rotate sanitizer use in food processing operations.pdf   148.41KB   15 downloads

although from USDA -

(2)

Sanitizers that have proven most effective against Lm are quaternary ammonia compounds, chlorine solutions, iodophors, and products containing peroxyacetic (peracetic) acid. Note that any sanitizer must be used at appropriate levels in order to be effective, and while not required, rotation of sanitizers helps avoid development of resistant bacteria.

 

h)  Rotate sanitizers periodically. Alternating between alkaline-based and acid-based detergents helps to avoid “soapstone” and biofilms. This also helps change the pH to prevent adaptation of bacteria to a particular environment.

 

Workshop
 
1. Mark T for “true” and F for “false” for each of the following statements
 
d)  ___Periodically rotating sanitizers will provide greater effectiveness against bacteria.

 

For (d) I suggest "true if validatable ?" I cannot find any example of latter.

Sanitation concerns in RTE environments.pdf   264.52KB   18 downloads

(quite a nice document despite my rotational scepticism)

(3)

Microorganisms cannot develop a tolerance to ozone, so no sanitizer rotation is necessary.

https://www.advanced...com/sanitizing/

Summary - there do exist several "rotational" suggestions in the Literature.

I suspect most are copying each other.

I have more faith in link No.1 until I see a relevant validatory study.