Sanitation - A Topic Without a Home

[mnml]

I am severely surprised and concerned about the lack of a Sanitation section on these boards. Without proper sanitation, you could be making lesser quality (or even unsafe) products with your money!

Consider my sanitation question a voucher for a dedicated section towards sanitation in cheese making:

Where I work, we clean our cheese moulds/hoops in a C.O.P. sink (clean out-of-place). This sink heats via heat-exchange coil at the bottom, and can circulate fluid via pump. They tend to use chlorinated detergents to clean and remove solids, as well as just about anything "dirtying" your dishes.

Currently, I am unsatisfied with the chemical solution we use. It seems that it is essentially a chlorinated version of Dawn, and we replace the cleaning solution in the sink about once a week. Perhaps our concentration is incorrect, but it does not effectively remove the "greasiness" that comes from aiding whey drainage in cheeses overnight. Occasionally, there are small bits of curd stuck to the dishes as well, despite having heat and agitation applied to them. We are but a small operation, and our owners want to be environmentally responsible, but it is unreasonable to take the time to check and scrub each dish to remove one little booger curd while trying to accomplish many other daily tasks.

At my former work, a university campus dairy plant, we used some heavy caustic cleanser, and the sink was filled up and drained for every dish-load. I rarely remember a time that we had to physically scrub a dish after washing.


What are some effective cleaners that anyone has experience with for C.O.P. stainless-steel dish cleaning (particularly whey/milk-fat greasiness)?

Are any effective while being friendly to the environment?

[John@PC]

I am severely surprised and concerned about the lack of a Sanitation section on these boards....
We are but a small operation, and our owners want to be environmentally responsible, but it is unreasonable to take the time to check and scrub each dish to remove one little booger curd while trying to accomplish many other daily tasks...   Are any effective while being friendly to the environment?[/b]

What an intriguing question. The subject of sanitation (and sterilization) I would think is settled science with established SOPs.  The question of "how do I get rid of that one little booger curd" is a question for the ages.   I'll leave that to others to answer  (personally I use a dishwasher, but that only works if the "booger" hasn't dried), but I will say that oxidizers like chlorine and caustics aren't necessarily "bad" for the environment because they, well, go away (get neutralized).   That said I would be surprised if residue of dried curd and milk fat wasn't found in King Tut's tomb :D.

[Spoons]

I use some K500 enzymatic cleaner along with some regular dish soap. Don't know if it's friendly to the environment though.

[Pete S]

  I use washing soda. I think this is what is in dairy wash.   Pete

[Digitalsmgital]

To paraphrase another member here, I've never been too crazy about sanity.  ^-^

[jwalker]

I use soap and water , then vinegar and/or alcohol , I find them to be sufficient and probably least harmful.

I'm all for being sanitary , but I'm not fixated on it.

[ArnaudForestier]

Jwalker - is that you, and your place?  Pics, please!

[jwalker]

No , not me , I wish it was.

Was just showing that a lot of cheese is made under what some would call unsanitary conditions , and it still great cheese.

[ArnaudForestier]

Oh, gotcha.  Some of my favorite images are of the very rustic Beaufort makes during the alpage.  Fire seems to be the only critter killer around.  ;D

[Chetty]

In all my cheese making I use chlorine and caustic barn soap.  If any of my dishes get to bad I pull out the barn acid and get them shined up again.  I just have to make sure that everything is rinsed good so that it don't effect my cultures.