|
 Cleaning
and maintenance program must have guidlines focusing
on physical waste products, chemical residues, and microbiological
contamination in various forms, from pathogenic bacterium
and/or fungus. These forms of contamination can range
from bacteria on employee's hands and simple wet spots
from spilled liquids, to arid cracks in equipment, the
lodging of granular substances in crevices, and cooked
food lodged in utensils. In order to clean these surfaces,
it is necessary to perform four basic steps: wash, rinse,
sanitize and dry. The washing process obviously requires
a liquid medium and a tool to physically remove grime,
for instance a brush or broom. There are numerous variations
of brushware, including handset, staple-set, twisted-in-wire
resin-set, epoxy, wound and fused. With it's emphasis
on cross-contamination curing use, the fused construction
proves to be superior as there are no gaps for harboring
bacteria. Often the most important, however, is the
nail brush, which is the most effective way of removing
any chance for cross-contamination from hands during
food prepertation.
Food
Service
There
are two types of brushware for food service: brushes
and brooms that clean the non-food surfaces in kitchens,
in food process plants and in large food, medical and
chemical institutions: and those that are used directly
on food for cleaning and basting new, cooked and pastry
type foods. Colour coding should be used to distinguish
between the non-food surfaces, and surfaces in direct
contact with food. The color of the brush filaments
should then alert the user to double check the danger
of cross contamination, and thus reduce the risks of
food poisoning.
The proper cleaning
of the brush is crucial to insure that any contaminates
are eliminated pior to subsequent use. The same four
steps should be followed for cleaning a brushware tool
as are used for general cleaning: wash, rinse, sanitise
and dry. It is a good practice to wash small brushes
and scrubbing tools in a dishwasher if available.
|
| John
C. Lewis, Jr is President of Tucel Industries, Inc, and
a consultant patentee in the field of manufacturing brushes,
brooms, squeegees, scours and sponges for the Janitorial,
Sanitary, Maintenance, Infectious Disease and Food Service
Industry. |
