Do you have proper HACCP cleaning schedules?

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In a food environment it is vital to follow HACCP procedures to ensure food safety. Part of these procedures will include having cleaning schedules and stringently sticking to them.

A cleaning schedule will allow for both maintenance and deep cleaning. Each time cleaning is done the person who does the cleaning of that particular area must sign. This will allow for each cleaner to be accountable for their cleaning. Spot checks and thorough inspections should be done regularly. If the inspection results in cleaning not being adequate a new cleaning regime (NCR) must then be introduced. The inspections will involve different tests for each area. These tests are not just visual checks but rather measurable, relevant tests. This will ensure that no bacteria are given a chance to grown and the area is kept clean.

All cleaning schedules should include information on what cleaning equipment is required for that area, frequency of cleaning, protective cleaning and gear required, warnings and full details of what needs to be cleaned.

Blendwell Chemicals can provide you with the right cleaning products for the job as well as the technical information you may need. Blendwell Chemicals manufactures a range of HACCP compliant cleaning products in Midrand, South Africa. We are your best local cleaning products manufacturer.

Are there HACCP compliant cleaning products for high level disinfection?

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Blendwell Chemicals manufactures a range of cleaning products specifically for use in the food industry. These food safe cleaners are in our H-range of products.

Sporequot H is a QAC (Quarterary Ammonium Compound) disinfectant. It is designed for both normal and high level disinfection and sterilization. It can be used through foaming machines if required. This disinfectant provides excellent microbicidal efficacy.

This cleaning product can be used in all water conditions and is totally free rinsing. It is capable of killing all bacteria, bacterial spores, fungi and yeasts. It is important to use this disinfectant only after the area has been cleaned and any soiling removed.

For more information on our HACCP cleaning chemicals please visit www.blendwell.co.za. Blendwell Chemicals is a manufacturer and wholesaler of a huge range of cleaning products.

Are there any cleaners that also disinfect and are HACCP compliant?

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The answer to that is – YES. Absolutely! Blendwell Chemicals manufactures a range of cleaning products that have specifically been designed for use in the food industry. The H-range cleaning products are all HACCP compliant.

Alko H is a concentrated, ready to use surface disinfectant. This cleaning product contains alcohol and is ideal for areas where rinsing surfaces after cleaning is problematic. It is suitable for all food related industries and can be applied to all food contact surfaces.

This cleaning product does not contain any perfume but it does smell because of the alcohol it contains. You should not dilute this cleaning chemical. Use it through a spray bottle and spray surface that it needing disinfecting or cleaning. It can be left to dry (evaporate) and will not contaminate food that is later prepared on that dry surface.

Blendwell Chemicals is able to supply wholesale bulk cleaning products for use in the food industry. This HACCP compliant range is called the H-range. You will find Blenwell Chemicals in Midrand South Africa.

3 things you can do for World Environment Day

5 June is World Environment Day and the theme for 2013 is “Think. Eat. Save.” The focus this year is on avoiding food wastage. Have you done anything to help this campaign?

• There are things we can all do to help. Firstly, only buy the food you need. This will prevent wastage. By buying more than you need you will create a greater demand and the suppliers you buy from will stock more food.
• Secondly, store food correctly. This will help it last longer and you will be able to eat it before it goes off. Make sure your fridge and freezer are working properly.
• Lastly, make sure the surfaces you prepare your food on are clean. Your food may become contaminated if surfaces are dirty and you may need to throw out food.

You can do your bit for World Environment Day every day by avoiding food waste. Please visit www.blendwell.co.za for information on food friendly cleaning products. Happy World Environment Day!

What are the 8 control measure for HACCP? Part 1

When you have a HACCP system in your establishment that grows, prepares or packages food, you will need control measures in place to avoid contamination of your food.

• Only use approved suppliers. Suppliers who understand your commitment to HACCP will be able to support your efforts to avoid contamination. Their products should be tested from time to time to ensure quality.
• Well-designed premises and equipment. If you have the right equipment and everything is laid out well, your systems will be easier to work. When things are in their place and your space makes sense, everyone can work more comfortably.
• Prevent pest infestations. A good HACCP system will have many preventative measures. Pests are attracted to all food stuffs and making sure you have adequate pest control is vital.
• Correct cleaning and disinfection. Using HACCP compliant cleaning products in a responsible manner is going to help you to avoid contaminations in your food factory.

Blendwell Chemicals manufactures its own range of HACCP compliant cleaning products. For more information please visit www.blendwell.co.za/Food_Industry_Cleaning_Products. Blendwell Chemicals is a manufacturer and wholesaler of cleaning products in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

What are the 4 hazards in a food factory?

In any environment where food is grown, produced, prepared or packaged, the HACCP system should be in place. HACCP is an acronym for the hazard analysis critical control point. This system analyses all contact points and their surroundings to ensure food remains safe.

There are four main types of hazards:

1. Biological and microbiological hazards. These would include all foodborne diseases like E. coli.
2. Physical hazards. These hazards will include things that can cause physical harm to the person eating the food by perhaps cutting their mouth, burning them or breaking their teeth. These things could be glass, nails, even jewellery that accidently falls into the food due to carelessness.
3. Chemical hazards. These hazards will occur when residues of pesticides or cleaning chemicals contaminate the food. Or if the food comes into contact with poisons. This can cause food poisoning and chronic illness.
4. Allergenic hazards. Some people are highly allergic to things like shellfish, peanuts, milk,soy, sesame seeds or gluten. If exposed to these foods they can experience anaphylactic shock. They do not always have to eat one of the foods that they are allergic to but the food could be exposed to the food they are allergic to and becomes contaminated.

You need to know what the hazards are in order to be able to avoid them. HACCP is a fantastic system to use if you handle food. For more information on cleaning products that are HACCP compliant please visit www.blendwell.co.za/Food_Industry_Cleaning_Products. Blendwell Chemicals manufactures cleaning products for the food industry in Midrand, South Africa.

The 7 principles of HACCP - Part two

For your establishment to follow the rules of HACCP, you can use the seven principles to get you started. Ensuring food safety is vital if you handle any type of food. My previous blog discussed the first three principles here are the rest.

• Principle 4: Establish critical control point monitoring requirements -Monitoring activities are necessary to ensure that the process is under control at each critical control point. Its frequency must be listed in the HACCP plan.
• Principle 5: Establish corrective actions - These are actions to be taken when monitoring indicates a deviation from an established critical limit.
• Principle 6: Establish procedures for ensuring the HACCP system is working as intended - Validation ensures that the plants do what they were designed to do. Verification ensures the HACCP plan is adequate, that is, working as intended. Verification procedures may include such activities as review of HACCP plans, CCP records, critical limits and microbial sampling and analysis.
• Principle 7: Establish record keeping procedures - The HACCP regulation requires that all plants maintain certain documents, including its hazard analysis and written HACCP plan, and records documenting the monitoring of critical control points, critical limits, verification activities, and the handling of processing deviations.

Getting your HACCP procedures right is vital when you handle any type of food product. For more information on HACCP cleaning products that are manufactured by Blendwell Chemicals please visit www.blendwell.co.za/Food_Industry_Cleaning_Products. Are you using the HACCP system yet? Let us know.

The 7 principles of HACCP - part one

To successfully run a HACCP system in your establishment you will need to follow the seven principles of HACCP. Here are the first three:

• Principle 1: Conduct a hazard analysis – Determine the food safety hazards and identify the preventive measures that can apply to control these hazards. A food safety hazard is any biological, chemical, or physical property that may cause a food to be unsafe for human consumption.
• Principle 2: Identify critical control points - A critical control point (CCP) is a point, step or procedure in a food manufacturing process at which control can be applied and as a result, a food safety hazard can be prevented, eliminated, or reduced to an acceptable level.
• Principle 3: Establish critical limits for each critical control point - Establish critical limits for each critical point. A critical limit is the maximum or minimum value to which a physical, biological, or chemical hazard must be controlled at a critical control point .

There are a further four principles to adhere to, if you want to get HACCP right. Watch out for our next blog. In the meantime, if you would like to know about the HACCP compliant cleaning chemicals that we manufacture, please visit www.blendwell.co.za/Food_Industry_Cleaning_Products.

Free training in May

Every month we have a free training session. This month we are doing training in HACCP. This training will involve cleaning of all types of farms, factories and kitchens where food is grown or prepared. -You can learn about our H-range of cleaning products that is HACCP compliant. Please call Cynthia on 011-805-9940 to book you place. Only a few spaces left for Wednesday 15 May at 10AM.

How to remove stains from a tablecloth

Lots of fun has been had and lots of food has been eaten and now the tablecloths look more like wars have been fought on them. If there were children at the table it’s usually worse. Not necessarily just because of the children but because mom’s red wine was inevitably spilt by one of the children.

When there are stains the best thing is to remove them as quickly as possible. If it’s red wine, you can douse the area with salt to soak up the wine. You can also get the table cloth off the table and rinse it in water – fast. This is my method for everything including my white pants that my two year old drew all over with black permanent marker. Give a light rub when wet to help loosen the fibres to release the stain. Always make sure that if it is a type of food that is spilt that you have removed as much of the solid parts as you can before making it wet.

The next part is a little bit of magic. Take Blendwell Chemicals Oxygen Bleach, just a scoop to 5 litres of water and let it soak. You can give it an extra rub to make sure the cleaning product gets into the stain. Leave it to soak. I often leave my very well stained table cloths soak for a day or two. Take it out and wash as per normal. Your tablecloth should look like new.

This is a cleaning chemical I cannot live without – you really should try it. Even my white pants have no sign of ever being in contact with a permanent marker. For more information on what Blendwell Chemicals manufactures please visit www.blendwell.co.za to see their huge range of cleaning products. Blendwell Chemicals is in Halfway House and is the best local wholesaler of cleaning products.

HACCP and cleaning chemicals

Environments where food is picked, prepared or processed need to conform to HACCP practices. HACCP is the hazard analysis critical control point system that checks every stage of food handling to ensure food safety. Any placed where food and food products are handled need to follow HACCP procedures. HACCP analyses the entire process required to make the food and is designed to ensure that the highest hygiene standards are maintained through all processes.

What is the role of cleaning chemicals in a HACCP system?

Cleaning chemicals are, most obviously necessary for cleaning. This cleaning should occur on all surfaces and utensils that come into direct contact with the food products. There are also times when the food itself will also require cleaning.

Cleaning chemicals are also used to maintain hygiene in all parts of the environment that may affect the food. For example, the truck that transports the food in clean containers must also be clean. Even if the containers are sealed, there is still the chance that when opening the containers, dirt and germs are transferred to the food.

Cleaning chemicals will also help the people who come into contact with the food, maintain the highest levels of hygiene. Without this, the food will be at risk.

Call Blendwell Chemicals today for all your HACCP cleaning chemicals or you can visit their website at www.blendwell.co.za/Food_Industry_cleaning_Products.  Blendwell Chemicals manufactures all their cleaning products in their factory in Midrand, South Africa. We are your best cleaning chemicals wholesaler.

Can I clean flexible floors with green cleaning products?

Cleaning flexible floors like vinyl or linoleum can be done in many different ways. Where these floors are will certainly affect how they should be cleaned. If being eco-friendly is a concern, then you can’t just use any cleaning products.

For green cleaning chemicals, a great option is the Eco-Lyte range of cleaning products. Eco-Lyte green cleaning chemicals are made with simple salt and water which is run through a specialised electrical process that creates incredibly powerful cleaning products. Once these awesome cleaners have been used they are then able to break down into their original components of salt and water. They leave absolutely no effect on the environment. They also do not require to be rinsed away like many traditional cleaners. This cuts down on work time and they will not taint food products.

Eco-Lyte DG is an amazing cleaning product that is great to use on floors. Eco-Lyte NTL is the best choice for routinely sanitising the floors.

You can’t go wrong with the Eco-Lyte range of environmentally friendly cleaning products. Blendwell Chemicals supplies Eco-Lyte products from the factory in Midrand. For more information please visit www.blendwell.co.za. Blendwell Chemicals is your best choice for a local cleaning chemical wholesaler.

Cleaning in a fishery

Cleaning in a fishery is a serious job. Due to the sensitive nature of fish products, microbial must be controlled in all areas at all times. It is vital that HACCP procedures are in place and followed religiously. This means that cleaning chemicals must be food safe.

Of course, all contact surfaces will need to be cleaned and disinfected and any utensils that come into contact with the fish. Eco-Lyte is a fantastic environmentally friendly cleaning product for this job. Eco-Lyte products do not need to be rinsed away after use and will not contaminate the fish either. Eco-Lyte works well to disinfect the fish as a whole as well as disinfecting the filleted product. These green cleaning products can help to increase shelf life and can be used in the ice for packaging and transport. This will translate to cost saving as well as a higher quality product.  Eco-lyte is also a brilliant choice for CIP (cleaning in place) areas.

You can contact Blendwell Cleaning Solutions for your free sample today. The Blendwell Cleaning Solutions factory is in Midrand, South Africa and we are your local cleaning chemical supplier. Please visit www.blendwell.co.za for more information.

How to clean food areas the eco-friendly way!

Whenever cleaning needs to occur in an area where food is prepared, great care must always be taken. Food safe cleaning products are vital for areas where food handled prepared and stored. Due to the sensitivity of the product , the cleaning products need to be extremely effective yet very gentle on the environment.

Eco-Lyte eco-friendly cleaning products are the ideal choice for food areas especially where HACCP controls are in place. For hotels, schools, restaurants and offices these cleaning products work better than most traditional cleaning chemicals and are completely green. Below are the results from a study that was done in different food areas in a restaurant. The TMA count is the total microbial activity count.

TMA count	Before	After
Meat prep board (Chemical)	3 200	1 140
Meat prep board (Eco-Lyte)	14 400	No growth
Kitchen surface (Chemical)	1 580	No growth
Kitchen surface (Eco-Lyte)	960	No growth
Waste bins (Eco-Lyte)	5 120 000	520
Sink area (Eco-Lyte)	1 360	No growth

These results clearly show just how effective Eco-Lyte is. For more information on these environmentally friendly cleaning products please visit www.blendwell.co.za. Blendwell Cleaning Solutions supplies these cleaning products from the factory in Midrand, South Africa. We are your local cleaning products manufacturer!