Use of Baby Wipes in a Food Plant Facility
We are a food plant facility of dry mixing ingredients. When we do allergen changeovers we do a sanitation, then we test. After the test has passed we sanitize with a bleach/water spray. We are wondering what is the possibility of using baby wipes or some form of wipes instead of bleach/water spray?
Nope
The chemicals in those items (even chlorox brand kitchen wipes when you read the fine print) are meant to be followed with a potable water rinse for food contact
Plus a fine mist is able to get into all the nooks and crannies that will be missed when wiping
There are specialised products intended for this application and I'm used to food manufacturers using things like this: Rentex 80% Alcohol Disinfectant Wipes 550 Tub Antibacterial Kills 99.9% (rentexhygiene.co.uk)
I think just the odour associated with baby wipes would make them unsuitable, but they aren't designed for environmental hygiene...
This is what we use when we have to. It is expensive. The wipes are only allowed to be used by QC. The extras are kept in a locked storage closet. When COVID was really bad and Clorox wipes were hard to come by - employees tried to take these and use them to sanitize office areas. I nixed that one really fast.
Single use towels (use once then launder) and bleach spray is an option too.