Review of current cleaning practices and
contamination controls in the dry goods industries

Identify industry's main approaches to cleaning dry areas in food production premises - as part of both safety and authenticity assurance programmes

Many food products are based on dry ingredients or use dry ingredients at some stage ­ for example, in coating, filling and extruding. Safety assurance of such ingredients is an important part of assuring the safety of the products as a whole. Increasing attention is being paid to safety of dry ingredients ­ not just as part of the growing awareness of the threat of foodborne pathogens, but also because of the emergence of issues such as foodborne allergens. Preventing cross-contamination is also important in assuring food authenticity ­ for example in preventing mixing of GM and non-GM or organic and non-organic ingredients.

In assessing the options for cleaning dry food environments, it became clear to CCFRA and its Dry Goods Manufacturers Working Party, that there was little guidance available on best practice. As a first step towards achieving this, CCFRA ­ with the help of the industrial Working Party - conducted a survey of industry approaches to cleaning dry food environments. This review presents and discusses the findings of this survey. It will be of interest to anyone involved in the use of dry ingredients in food production as it will allow them to identify the approaches and problems experienced by other companies and to begin to benchmark their own.

Contents include:

• Introduction
• Survey Details
• Dry Production Environments
• Dry Cleaning
• Wet Cleaning
• Microbiological Assessment
• Cleaning Advice
• Conclusions
• Reference
• Appendix