2 replies to this topic

[maggie18]

In our food manufacturing facility, we use potable water hoses for cleaning. We've never had an issue before, but now we are starting to see higher (>1,000 cfu/g) APC counts in our water hoses continuously. Coliform is always <1. We've tested the source and it is always clean so we know it's not coming from there. In the past, if we had an issue with one of our hoses, we would replace it. Now the question has come up if we can clean the inside of the water hose or not. I've never heard of this being done but I'm still pretty fresh in the food manufacturing industry. I'm not even quite sure how this would be done.

 

Any thoughts?

[G M]

Pump sanitizer through it.  We have some small equipment that doses RO water into a product, and after the sanitation cycle before production startup we pump sanitizer through it as a precautionary step -- let it sit full of sanitizer for whatever manufacturer recommended rest time, then flush it out before use.

 

With a large hose I suppose you could draw from a barrel with the pump, and empty the hose back into it to continuously flush it for a few minutes.  Might have some foaming or agitation limitations.  If its a severe problem you might need to lead with a mild cleanser or suspended abrasive -- but if I thought it was that bad I'd probably just dispose of the hose.

[SQFconsultant]

We have used a roughed pig ball that is filled with sanitizer, similar in size to a golf ball, loading them on the one end, hooking up to the water and shooting them thru.