Sanitizers and Disinfectants

It is very important to sanitize and disinfect the food products and the food storage premises. Especially in food industry, the disinfectants which contain chlorine compounds (e.g., bleach), peroxide and peroxy acid mixtures for use on food-contact surfaces and sanitizers which are effective in reducing microbial contamination in specific conditions provides an essential  step to ensure that the foods produced and stored are free from food borne diseases.

Before we discuss about the chemicals, we should understand the difference between disinfectants and sanitizers. Disinfectants destroys specific infectious fungi and bacteria. Sanitization helps reduce the microbial contamination without affecting the quality or the safety of a product. 

The required chemicals should be made as per the requirement and the concentration should be applied for a specific period of time to attain the required level of sanitization or disinfection. The instructions mentioned on the product labels should be followed to achieve the desired sanitization levels.

The below mentioned chart shows the dilution requirement.

Items	No. of tablets	Chlorine availability	Water	Recommended Contact time
Vegetables	1	50ppm	20 Ltr	15 minutes
Cutting equipment	2	100ppm	20 Ltr	15 minutes
Walls, tiles, floor	4	200ppm	20 Ltr	15 minutes
And Tables
Dining Tables	4	200ppm	20 Ltr	15 minutes

The ability to reduce the contamination level specifies the efficiency level of any chemical used for sanitization or disinfection. The standards for sanitization specifically for contamination reduction in food contact surfaces is accepted as 99.9% which is achieved in 30 seconds, for nonfood contact surfaces it is accepted within 99.9%  within 30 seconds as per the international analysis method. Whereas disinfection in contract must destroy or irreversibly inactivate all specified organisms within 10 minutes.

Sanitization process depends on the surfaces which need to be sanitized. Sanitizers should be applied on the surfaces that are free of organic matter and cleaner residues. Usually the acceptable order is rinse, clean, rinse and sanitize.

When one knows the mixing of concentration it would be easy to prepare the sanitizers and disinfectants to protect the food and non food premises and make it free from microbial contaminations.