12 replies to this topic

[alexAy]

Good morning,

 

I am working on our Sanitation and Cleaning program. I was looking at the requirement for verifying chemical concentration. We are following the manufacturer's recommendations and i am looking to getting test strips for our sanitizers. We do you a foaming degreaser, but test strips do not test foams. Does anyone know of a test or verification we can use to test the concentration.

 

Thank you

[Scotty_SQF]

Do you mix cleaning chemicals or have a dispenser that mixes cleaning chemicals for you?  If you do, you need to verify those concentrations as well.  That is what I have been asked for throughout my years in audits.  You can have the contracting company come out and do it, or if they give you what the mix concentrations are, you can perform the verification yourself.

[alexAy]

We have a dispenser, and they have metering tips that can be adjusted to proper concentration. I guess i want to verify the chemicals when they come out. I know sanitizer has test strips but I'm not sure if the degreaser can be tested with the same strips. 

[Sam D]

I had the same issue where the chemical supplier installed the metering tip at dispenser but could not provide me exact concentrations. I did a lot of back and forth with my chemical supplier and eventually ended up buying caustic testing kit from Amazon.

[FurryCrow]

Check with your chemical supplier, they usually offer Test Kits for cleaning chemicals they supply.

[alexAy]

Thank you all. I checked with our supplier yesterday but weren't helpful. It looks like I will need 2 separate test one for our sanitizer and degreaser

[SHQuality]

Why are you verifying the chemical concentration?

Is it to ensure the concentration is SAFE or to confirm it is the one prescribed?

If you also have a cleaning verification plan that confirms that your cleaning was effective, I would expect confirmation they're safe to be sufficient (but I'm not sure how the auditor would take it).

[wbourg]

Your sanitation company should provide titration kits for these. Mine does at least. We get something  like this:

 

https://chemstationp...&pr_seq=uniform

Edited by wbourg, 16 March 2023 - 02:23 PM.

[alexAy]

We are trying to meet the SQF criteria for methods used to confirm the correct concentrations of detergents and sanitizers. Maybe I'm overthinking it?

[kfromNE]

Thank you all. I checked with our supplier yesterday but weren't helpful. It looks like I will need 2 separate test one for our sanitizer and degreaser

You'll need to get the two separate test kits.

[kingstudruler1]

how can you ever test for the "degreaser" concentration without help from chemical MFG?

 

They are the only ones that know the chemistry and thus how whatever test you do would correspond to the correct OZs per gallon mixed.   Do you have the exact chemical make up of the "degreaser"?   (not ranges)

 

 

I cant think of any circumstances where you could ever use the same test for a sanitizer as a cleaner / degreaser.   

[SQFconsultant]

Having been in the cleaning chemical industry you will find that the most important test/check you can so is what is known as a "metering tip".

The tip regulates the amount of flow of chemicals to the amount of water being mixed in order to create the foam - the tips need to be checked to ensure they match specs.

These tips are critical to be in good condition and be the right one for the specs.

As long as the tip is correct and in good shape it will always dispense the correct amount and ensure that when you test strip the foam that it comes in the way it should.

Shoot some foam into a container and allow it to stand for just a little while and then test the breakdown liquid.

By the way we always check to make sure the tips are the correct color because a corrupt chem rep can switch out the tips to increase chemical usage very easily.

[Scampi]

I think you need to be performing titration tests at minimum weekly to verify concentrations

 

The metering tip will only work IF that is where the chemical meets the water, in lots of cases there is a mixing step prior to the hose, the the nozzle simply determines weather it's a spray or a foam

 

I wouldn't personally suggest using amazon to order titration kits (the chemicals are just more likely to have expired---use fisher scientific or similar IMHO)