Getting to know the basics in food/dairy processing plants
Clean in place or its abbreviation CIP, which means washing in place, is a system that is used in most food and dairy industries to wash all kinds of dairy equipment. This device uses hot water, steam and detergents to wash all the pollution from the internal surfaces of the equipment and prepare them for reuse.
One of the most important and vital things in dairy/food factories is to systematically and periodically wash the equipment to maintain quality and prevent the growth of microbes and harmful things.
Maintaining health conditions is obligatory and has legal requirements both from a commercial point of view (maintaining quality and brand) and from an ethical point of view (to protect the health and hygiene of consumers) and also a legal requirement (compliance with the standards of the Ministry of Health and Citizen Rights).
How to wash equipment
From the time of manual washing that was done by workers with the help of a brush until today, it has been well developed by the in-place washing system (CIP) according to the process needs and has brought acceptable results.
In the case of cold surfaces, it is generally necessary to wash with alkali every day, and washing with acid is recommended weekly, but in the case of hot surfaces, daily washing with alkali and acid is done daily.
Steps of CIP system in dairy factories and food industries
-
Pre-wash step
-
Hot wash
-
Intermediate wash
-
Final wash
-
Disinfectant wash