54I-1

L. S. JACKSON¹, J. E. Schlesser¹, F. Al-Taher¹, T.-J. Fu¹, S. M. Gendel¹, and M. A. Moorman². (1) National Center for Food Safety and Technology, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, IIT Moffett Campus, 6502 S. Archer Rd., Summit-Argo, IL 60501, (2) W.K. Kellogg Institute, Kellogg Co., 2 Hamblin Ave. E., Battle Creek, MI 49017

Consumers with food allergies rely on food labels to disclose the presence of allergenic ingredients. However, undeclared allergens can be inadvertently introduced into a food due to cross-contamination during manufacture. Inadequate cleaning of shared processing equipment may be a major cause of cross-contamination. Our objective was to measure the efficacy of different cleaning protocols for removing hot and cold milk soils from a stainless steel surface. To create a hot milk soil, whole milk (0.75 mL) was pipetted into 2.54 cm diameter O-rings mounted to the surface of stainless steel (304A, 2B finish) plates. The plates were placed into an 88 °C oven and heated until the milk formed a dry film (1.5 hr). Cold milk soils on stainless steel plates were prepared as described above, except plates were kept in the refrigerator (6 °C) for 48 hr. Plates were washed with water or chlorinated alkali detergent (CAD) at room temperature (30 °C, 62.8 °C, and 73.8 °C for 30 min. After cleaning, the plates were swabbed and milk residues measured with an ELISA milk assay. Water without CAD was not effective at removing hot milk soil from the stainless steel plates. CAD was able to remove all hot milk residues even when the detergent solution was at room temperature. In contrast, water alone at 62.8 °C and 73.8 °C was effective at removing cold milk soils. Cleaning of plates with room temperature water resulted in detectable milk residues on the plates. Food processors need to evaluate the efficacy of cleaning protocols, depending on the type of milk soil contaminating food processing equipment.

Session 54I, Toxicology & Safety Evaluation: General
2:00 PM - 5:30 PM, Monday PM Room Hall I-2

2005 IFT Annual Meeting, July 15-20 - New Orleans, Louisiana