The European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group (EHEDG) just published a comprehensive hygienic design guideline dedicated exclusively to cleaning validation, monitoring and verification.

Chair of the EHEDG Working Group Cleaning Validation Hui Zhang (Unilever): 'Everyone involved in food processing who wants to strengthen the reliability of their cleaning validation processes can put this guideline to good use to tackle cleaning challenges and minimize contamination risks.'

Zhang: 'Cleaning validation is very simple; it is the visual cleanliness. Acceptance criteria should be based on food safety requirements, like pathogens and allergens, or based on product quality requirements, like organisms, colour, or other appearance attributes.'

Substandard cleaning validation puts consumer safety at risk. This new guideline provides an overall concept and master plan, offering step by step guidance to help companies complete cleaning validation. Several templates and clear instructions are provided, and the protocol can be easily followed, allowing processors to establish their own validation, monitoring, and verification programs.

Zhang: 'EHEDG is a great platform for producers of all sizes to exchange knowledge and experience with each other, allowing all member companies to benefit from the extensive professional network of the organisation.'

This EHEDG Working Group was composed of a variety of companies and specialties, including manufacturers of raw materials, manufacturers of cleaning and disinfection chemicals, machinery manufacturers, and consultants who provide food hygiene service and hygiene solutions.

EHEDG already published another guideline related to Cleaning and Disinfection (Document 52), which belongs to the same cluster as the EHEDG Guideline Validation. These documents complement each other in assisting all parties involved in food safety to ensure their equipment is properly cleaned and their food processing lines and environments meet all requirements for safe food production, optimised productivity as a result of effective cleaning and minimised cleaning time intervals, and less use of water and cleaning chemicals for improved sustainability.

For more information, contact EHEDG
Cristina Annoni
+31 610 216 958
office@ehedg.org