Cleaning of nylon brushes used for food packing equipment?
We are in the process of writing up our SOP for the Vibro Sifter, and considering using a nylon brush to clean the sieves? what is the best way to clean nylon brushes to ensure food safety, prior to use?
Not completely aware of your situation but I think soaking in diluted bleach/chlorinated soap, followed by rinsing ,sanitizing and air drying should be good enough.
I am thinking that this is near the beginning of your process flow, possibly right after receiving? While I do not think there is a risk of cleaning the brush or actual bristles such as mentioned by samjhand what would be your corrective actions if your brush starts losing bristles? In the past when I have cleaned sieves / rotex / vibration tables I have used the metal bristle brushes that way magnets and MD can pull out bristles that become loose or fall off when cleaning. It really depends on your product / and subsequent steps and capabilities.
Hi there Samjhand and TylerJones, thank you so much for the feedback... yes our company recently purchased a Vibro-sifter vibrating screen machine that we intend to use to sift filth from ground ingredients, such as spices. We are trying to come up with the most efficient way to santize the vibro sifter before and after, as to take apart the sieves and transport the machine outside the room is quite heavy and time consuming, so we were considering the nylon brushes...any ideas of could be the best way to sanitize this machine before, during and after use? Will definitely take into consideration the corrective action if bristles fall out.
Any suggestions for our SOP regarding cleaning of the Vibro sifter?
I have not worked with spices but I do have experience with with products that require dry sanitation.
If you chose to go with dry sanitation, you can use combination of dust blower, vacuum, cleaning rags and food grade sanitizing wipes to keep the equipment clean on a daily basis. I used Alpet D2 as surface sanitizer. Depending on how much dirty the machine can get, you can set a frequency to break apart the machine into pieces and deep clean with chlorine based soap. This can be a part of your master sanitation.
You can chose to use brushes but as mentioned above, you can have risk of plastic contamination in your product. I would suggest using metal brushes too.
-Sam