How Your Cleaning Products Can Pass the Food Industry’s Trust Test

Chemical cleaning products used in food processing facilities and restaurants are not regulated like other chemical compounds (i.e. nonfood compounds) such as incidental food contact lubricants.

For food/beverage manufacturers and foodservice operators, it really becomes their responsibility to decide if a cleaning product is safe to use in a processing, handling or cooking environment. Consequently, they need strong assurances from you—the cleaning product manufacturer—that your products are safe for their intended uses, which adds to your own challenges and responsibilities.

The most efficient and effective way to prove your cleaning products are suitable to use is by registering them with an independent third-party assurance provider like NSF.

Many global food safety organizations and GFSI certification program owners have guidelines and standards that reference the acceptable usage of cleaning products. Registration requirements give you and any food operation the assurance that:

• There are clear use instructions on product labels.
• The use instructions are not contradictory.
• The intended use has been reviewed by the registration body.

Registering hand sanitizers provides reassurances that your product has gone through:

• A formulation review to ensure the product is safe for use in a food-handling environment
• Efficacy testing for at least Salmonella enterica ATCC 10708 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538

To confirm a cleaning or disinfecting product is suitable for a food manufacturing facility or foodservice establishment, companies often refer to NSF’s White Book™.

¹ www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/4805834/industrial-cleaning-chemicals-global-market