Cooking Kettle Scraper Paddles Showing Staining

Hello,

We are using Teflon scrapers for cooking kettles.  Some of the new recipes we have are staining them and the question is do they need to be perfectly clean?  Risk: bacteria or potentially eventually a biofilm risk?

If we soak them in acid chemicals, it can get them cleaned up, but obviously it requires downtime to pull them out, etc.

Does anyone have a recommendation?  To clean or not to clean?

Thanks

Stains don't necessarily cause biofilms to develop. As long as they are cleaned and sanitized, and appear in smooth condition, I would not worry. 

Do you have to use Teflon?

We had used Nylon and it became brittle over time with small pieces cracking/flaking off.  These are exposed to CIP chemicals and Heat, around 90C.

What else would you recommend?

Stains occur especially with tomato base items.  Listeria is killed almost instantly at 165 F so way under the 90 C that you use. 

Your biggest concern - the condition of the blades and not breaking. 

Our facility is inspected daily by the USDA. Their biggest worry - the potential physical contaminants from the blade. 

If you are being thorough with cleaning and inspection, and your micro testing is verifying those processes as effective, I don't see a problem.

The Teflon seems to be pretty resistant to breaking and becoming brittle.  Just looking for ideas on how to get this easily cleaned without taking them all out.  We use purees of carrot and different fruits that seem to leave a lot of staining even after CIP.