Compositions for visualization of cleaning efficacy and product coverage

Abstract

The invention relates to cleaning and food processing aide applications whereby unique compositions of GRAS or food additives were developed to assess the effectiveness of cleaning procedures at various stages of the processes and to assess the delivery and adherence of food processing aides. Employing such solutions to clean and/or sanitize processing equipment provides a method to evaluate and enhance the effectiveness of procedures used to remove the respective fluorescent detergents, sanitizers or organic residues from equipment or niches and reduce contamination. Similar compositions were developed for assessing processing aide food surface coverage, contact time and adherence. In addition, unique compositions were invented that increase processing aide coverage and adherence. Quantification of the presence or absence of the fluorescent GRAS or food additive compositions produces results for validation, monitoring and/or verification of food safety intervention procedures/processes.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61 / 630,805 filed Oct. 26, 2011, the entire substance of which is incorporated herein by reference.FIELD OF INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to enhanced cleaning and processing aid solutions whereby compositions of GRAS or food additive ingredients were invented to provide improved assessment tools, function and measurability.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Food safety and quality professionals rely on validated processes to prevent illness. The processes covered in this invention include sanitation of equipment and application of processing aides to foods. Chemical and microbiological contamination caused by inadequate sanitary design of equipment or ineffective sanitation procedures are very serious risks in food, feed and pharmaceutical production. Very low levels of contamination can cause serious illness. For example allergic reactions can result from...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0035]The present inventions create compositions that provide products that can be used as tools to improve hygienic sanitation conditions of processing equipment and to improve antimicrobial processing aide performance as applicable in the food, feed, beverage, processing and service industry. Compositions of GRAS or food additive ingredients were developed that when mixed

Problems solved by technology

Chemical and microbiological contamination caused by inadequate sanitary design of equipment or ineffective sanitation procedures are very serious risks in food, feed and pharmaceutical production.

Very low levels of contamination can cause serious illness.

Chemical residue can build up on surfaces or in niches and if not properly removed the compounds can cause cross contamination.

LM organisms are transported out of the niches by the motion of the equipment and or fluids, thus contaminating food contact surfaces and food.

Poor equipment sanitary design conditions are easily missed by ineffective monitoring and verification of the cleaning and sanitation procedures.

However, a common problem associated with detergent residue testing is that detergent suppliers will not provide specific compositions and rapid test kits are not available which makes it difficult for the user to determine if they are completely removed.

The most common practice of visually evaluating the sanitary condition of equipment is limited when the objective is to clean to a microbiological and parts per million level of sensitivity.

Microbiological swab sampling is limited in the area (i.e., square inches) tested, the cost per test and time for results.

Limiting factors for ATP swab sampling include sample size and cost per test.

Similarly, chemical residue tests are limited due the lack of rapid test kits, small sample size, time and cost associated with the analysis.

Traditional routine inspection methods are designed to evaluate a budgeted number of routine sample points instead of the entire processing line and all the potential niches, and are therefore subject to miss unhygienic conditions.

Invalid food safety processing aides or interventions incorporated in food processing facilities pose the risk of causing food borne illness and public health incidents.

And history has shown that facilities with scaled up processing aide delivery/intervention systems have been associated with food borne illnesses and product recalls.

Delivering antimicrobial solutions onto food so that adequate surface coverage is achieved in a processing plant is difficult.

And quantifying adequate coverage is equally as difficult.

Often times the spray system is not accessible for observation of performance and at best, measuring coverage is subjective.

It is difficult to distinguish between the intervention and rinse water when visually evaluating the surface of the treated product.

Spray coverage and/or contact time can be inadequate from

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