How long do you allow production equipment to sit before starting back up or deciding to fully clean?

How much time do you allow for production equipment to sit before starting back up or deciding to fully clean? 

Why should it sit? We clean the equipment right away after being used (packing line, pump) or emptied (e.g. pasteurization vat, blend tank) - otherwise, the longer the equipment sits unclean, the more possibility that milk protein is hardened somewhere inside and consequently will be more difficult to remove. Anyways, it depends on your processes and equipment involved.

May need some more info to understand what you mean. What exactly is it doing while "sitting" - after used in production? between products? What is the purpose for this equipment sitting?

Equipment is fully cleaned after use.

 

However, if you mean equipment that is place in temporary storage to be used later on - couple of days, couple weeks, etc - it gets placed into a storage area fully cleaned and checked every other day (dust, settlement, pests, etc.) and recleaned again prior to being placed back into service.

You have to decide how long it is safe for equipment to sit unused based on storage conditions, type of product, amount of time since last use, etc.  Instead of trying to prove all that is effective though just clean the equipment at the end of its last run, and clean again before next use, every time.  

 

Or do you mean like 12 hours overnight vs. 72 hour weekend?  

In our facility we will clean and sanitize.  If the line does not restart in 4 hours, mechanical issues, the line will just be re-sanitized.  As for extended down time after a cleanup that will be 2 days or more we will give the line a quick reclean and sanitize before restarting.  But the first cleaning has to be a good one to make this work as the line is inspected before any restart after a cleaning.

After the last shift of the day, the production line is thoroughly cleaned (desinfected). When it's done there's only a few hourse before next shift start so no more cleaning/rinising.

We do checks before start up to verify cleanliness.

 

If there is a hold up (for what ever reason) or change of product we only rinse the line with water, no chemicals to avoid cross-contamination.

 

If there's been a longer stand still for several days (for repairs/holiday etc.) we do a thorough clean with desinfection before start of next shift.

After the last shift of the day, the production line is thoroughly cleaned (desinfected). When it's done there's only a few hourse before next shift start so no more cleaning/rinising.

We do checks before start up to verify cleanliness.

 

If there is a hold up (for what ever reason) or change of product we only rinse the line with water, no chemicals to avoid cross-contamination.

 

If there's been a longer stand still for several days (for repairs/holiday etc.) we do a thorough clean with desinfection before start of next shift.

if it only few hours, visual inspection sufficient enough however some of the auditors or challenges where there may arise the question, how to ensure the food contact surface is clean enough? For this, your air monitoring and initial testing could work