Give it a good scrub

Basically, I'm not a camping person. But even so, I plunged into the 'back to basics' camping life this summer. I loved it, the outdoor living with only the bare necessities was refreshing.

And yet... there was one aspect I couldn't get used to. The washing up. At home, I fill the dishwasher, put in a tablet in the evening, and voilà: the next morning, everything is clean.

I was thrilled that, on the first day, my children wanted to do the dishes. They came back after around twenty minutes later: their clothes soaking wet, the dishes still dirty. "The detergent is rubbish, Mom!". What nonsense, I thought. So I would have a go at it. Soon enough, I knew what the problem was: the water temperature. It was barely lukewarm. With a hefty extra dose of detergent, some good scrubbing of the plastic tableware, and a red face for my troubles, I ultimately won the battle against the layer of fat. Looking at my dish-washing neighbour, I saw a foam monster coming out of his drain.

I was reminded of the four basic factors for effective cleaning: Time, Temperature, Concentration, and Mechanical Action. The influence of each of these factors can vary without loss of effectiveness, but you need all four to get the result you want. At the campsite, I used a higher concentration of chemicals, more time, and more mechanical activity to compensate for the low water temperature.

In the food industry, efficiency and effectiveness of the cleaning process is also determined by these four factors. You have to make sure that they affect each other optimally and that they are in line with the type of dirt or waste in your production process. To achieve an effective cleaning result, the influence of the mechanical action is essential: scrubbing with a brush, scouring pad, or microfibre towels. You also don't do the dishes without a dish brush.

We've been back home for a few weeks now. I feel slightly nostalgic when I look at the holiday snaps. But when I bring the dishwasher to life at the press of one button, I'm very happy.

www.commercialfoodsanitation.com

Claudia Baenen works at Commercial Food Sanitation (an Intralox company)