Cleaning Small-Scale Dairy Plants: Cleaning Equipment

- [Narrator] Manual cleaning of equipment in a dairy processing plant involves full disassembly of the equipment and cleaning everything by hand.

Today, our cheese maker, Eva will show you how she cleans her vat and utensils.

Manual cleaning involves buckets of cleaning solutions and brushes.

Using color-coded supplies allows Eva to designate these for a specific task or area to prevent cross-contamination during cleaning.

This facility uses only white brushes for cleaning and sanitizing food contact surfaces.

There are different styles of brushes, so Eva can choose the brush that is most effective for the situation.

Yellow buckets and other supplies are used for cleaning non-food contact surfaces, such as the wheels of the cheese vat and floors.

Most dairies use red cleaning supplies where raw milk is received and blended to prevent spreading any potential contamination from the raw milk to the finished product areas.

Black is used exclusively for drains.

This drain brush has a red colored area to indicate that it is used to clean drains in a raw milk area.

And the handle is printed with the words, used for floor drains only.

Other colors can be assigned for different situations, such as using orange for cleaning when allergens are used in processing.

In addition to using the right supplies for the job, Eva needs to use the right PPE to protect her from the cleaning chemicals.

Eva changed from processing shoes into chemical and slip-resistant boots.

For manual cleaning, she has on a chemical-resistant apron, safety glasses and chemical-resistant gloves.

The cleaning procedures Eva follows are written in the Sanitation Standard Operating Procedure or SSOP for cleaning the cheese vat and utensils.

For manual cleaning, Eva uses a powdered chlorinated alkaline cleaner that is suitable for your removing dairy soils, namely fat, protein, and lactose.

According to the directions on our SSOP and cleaning chart, one packet of powder is mixed with five gallons of water.

To avoid splashing concentrated chemicals, first, the bucket is filled with water, and then the chemicals are added.

Eva fills the bucket with water that is at least 120 degrees Fahrenheit or 49 degrees Celsius to make sure that the fat is melted and removed by the cleaning solution.

Now she carefully pours in the chemicals and gently mixes with her cleaning brush to dissolve the powder and avoid splashing.

Eva is now properly dressed, has the correct supplies, has prepared to cleaning solutions, and is ready to clean the cheese vat.

To prepare the vat for manual cleaning Eva removes utensils and disassembles the outlet valve from the vat.

There are four basic steps in cleaning: the pre-rinse, wash, post-rinse and the sanitize step.

The pre-rinse uses warm water to remove the majority of the visible soil as Eva does here.

The next step is washing to remove soils.

The four washing factors are time, action, or mechanical force, concentration, and temperature.

These factors are outlined in the SSOP for cleaning the specific piece of equipment.

The amount of time and the amount of scrubbing needed will depend on how dirty the equipment is.

Remember that the cleaning solution should be at 120 degrees Fahrenheit or 49 degrees C to ensure fat removal.

Eva starts by washing the inside of the vat and then washes around the edges, the upper part of the vat and the valve.

These are food contact surfaces so Eva uses the white brushes.

Eva uses the yellow brush on the wheels to avoid any floor contaminants being carried to the food contact surfaces.

The next step is the post-rinse which is usually warm water for manual cleaning.

If there is mineral buildup on the surface, an acid wash with a clean rinse can be done to remove these deposits.

The next step is a thorough visual inspection of the vat to make sure that it is clean.

If you find a problem, then rewash and reinspect as Eva does here.

The last step is sanitizing.

The vat is always sanitized immediately before use.

And since Eva won't be making cheese for a few days, she will skip this step today.

The utensils are cleaned in a three basin sink.

The first basin holds the dirty utensils.

The second holds the washing solution, and the third sink is used to rinse the washed utensils.

Just like with the cheese vat, she uses sufficient mechanical force and visually inspects the utensils to make sure they are cleaned before they're put on a clean rack to dry.

The last thing Eva does is document that she cleaned the vat and utensils to make sure her food safety records are complete.

Now she can take pride in a job well done to keep her facility as clean as possible to make high-quality, safe dairy foods.