The European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group (EHEDG) has recently published a comprehensive hygienic design guideline (EHEDG Guideline Document 52) dedicated to the Basic Cleaning and Disinfection Principles for Food Manufacturing.

Dirk Nikoleiski (Commercial Food Sanitation) and Chair of the EHEDG Working Group Cleaning and Disinfection: "Oftentimes, the basic principles of cleaning and disinfection are not well understood, so companies may rely on what they’ve done for many years. This guideline will give manufacturers the knowledge to help make the right decisions for setting up effective cleaning regimes and cleaning protocols."

Globally, laws are in place that oblige food producers and manufacturers to set up cleaning and disinfection regimes; however, the laws only outline what has to be done and not how. This guideline is provided for all stakeholders in the food industry and provides different methodologies. It includes the differences in approach between dry and wet cleaning and disinfection, as well as basic fundamentals on soil and soil characteristics. This will provide a holistic overview on cleaning and disinfection.

Nikoleiski: "Hygienic design will determine the options you have as to cleaning, and in turn, when you set up a cleaning protocol because of product attributes, the reliability of the product requires a certain cleaning regime, which determines the design."

Contributors
With input from all stakeholders, including suppliers, cleaning services, equipment and food manufacturers, retailers, and researchers the working group relied on a variety of engaged experts to contribute to this substantial guideline that utilizes sketches, illustrations and some publications from other sources in order to provide the best guidance available.

Simultaneously, EHEDG publishes another guideline related to Cleaning Validation, which is part of the same cluster as the EHEDG Guideline Cleaning and Disinfection and the recently issued EHEDG CIP (Cleaning-in Place) Guideline. Combined, these complementing documents offer a valuable set of reference documents for all parties involved in food safety to ensure effective and efficient cleaning of their food processing lines and environments. They will help them to meet current requirements for safe food production, to optimise productivity as a result of more efficient cleaning processes and shorter cleaning time intervals, as well as to reduce water and cleaning chemicals usage.

If you would like more information on this topic, please reach out to the EHEDG Office at office@ehedg.org