Sanitizing and sourdough
I've just taken our local MarketSAFE course (Food Safe for people who prepare food in their home kitchens for sale at markets). Apparently, even though bread is a generally low-risk food I need to sanitize everything in the kitchen, all the time.
I'm having a little trouble feeling comfortable soaking (or spraying) everything with a bleach solution, considering most of my breads are naturally leavened, and I also make kefir and kombucha and use them in my bread. According to the handbook you're not supposed to rinse off the bleach solution after using it to sanitize bowls, counter tops etc.
Does anyone have experience with keeping your good 'bread beasties' happy while killing the rest of them with bleach? Can you make me more comfortable with this (please)?
is Sodium hypochlorite at a concentration of around 3% to 8% in aqueous (water-based) solution. I have not taken the Safety course you mention, but I'm sure their recommendation is to further dilute the bleach in (a lot) more water. The hypochlorite degrades into sodium chloride (table salt), sodium chlorate, and oxygen when dissolved in water. Exposure to light and heat accelerate this breakdown.
I only did a cursory web search for the concentration recommended for food prep surfaces and I found a site which recommended 2 teaspoons Clorox (8.25% hypochlorite) per gallon of water. They state that this creates an approximately 200ppm solution, or roughly 0.02% At such a low concentration, the breakdown to less active compounds happens relatively quickly. Fortunately, Chlorine is highly toxic and kills most things on contact, so it doesn't need a long exposure time to do its job. By the time you no longer smell that "bleachy" smell most of the chlorine is gone, and it has killed pretty much everything it's going to kill.
City water systems use the same sodium hypochlorite that's in your bottle of Clorox. And I've seen countless recommendations for people feeding sourdough cultures with tap water to let the water set on the countertop overnight to allow the chlorine to dissipate - and that's adding it directly to the food. (Admittedly, water treatment systems usually add enough to get a concentration of only 4ppm but the principle is still the same.) If you're really concerned about the possible effects on the good organisms you work with, just let your surfaces "air out" for a few hours before using them again. i.e., sanitize at night before going to bed and you should be fine by morning.
Just be sure to mix your solution exactly as the handbook says - it's really easy to get your concentration too strong and then you will have problems. We used to mix bleach/water solutions for cleaning surfaces at the dialysis clinic I worked at and if the technicians were sloppy about it we were way outside of regulations.
... here in the UK the rules state that surfaces need to be cleaned and sterilised - 2 separate operations. The sterilising part needs to be done with a British Standards approved sanitiser - the important part is to respect the contact-time stated on the bottle - most are 5 minutes - then you can wipe down with a dry paper towel or clean cloth.
It's generally not a problem. You'll clean before starting then you can let it all dry while you prepare dry ingredients, etc. mix/knead in bowls before moving to the bench.
I really don't think you'll have any problems. I don't even think about it here now.
-Gordon
We have something similar here in Aus, chlorine is standard for most applications - clean first then sterilize all contact surfaces. I have a very good letter from the Bread Bakers Guild of America that makes reference to the use of bannetons and not sterilizing them. Other than that I can say that you can use white vinegar though they may not except it, or a UV sanitizer like they do in hospitals, or heat treat.
We use test strips similar to these to confirm the strength of the solution. In the sanitizing part of the sink we aim for 100 ppm and when sanitizing work surfaces we use a small pail with 200 ppm solution. The test strips are available at most restaurant supply places, are cheap and as long as you keep them dry they last a long time. With baked goods the danger of contamination will be greatest after it is baked.
Gerhard
Thanks for all the great advice and information, folks. I knew this was the right place to ask! I now have spray bottles of bleach solution in both kitchens and a bin for soaking utensils, etc. And I'm feeling a lot better about things. :)
Hi,
AFAIK (UK Catering College) Bleach leaves residue & so should be washed off with clean water, sanitiser (F.A.D?) should be "non-residual" & so is safe to use on food prep surfaces without subsequent cleaning.
Bleach also loses a lot of its effectiveness around oil etc... so before cleaner/sanitisers became widely available; for areas that had high risk substances - Chicken, game, fish etc : Detergent first ( to degrease) then bleach solution - contact time 5 mins plus, then wash off with clean water.
Nowadays, just spring for the sanitiser, the concentrate is cheap enough by the gallon...
So, does diluted bleach count as 'sanitiser', or is that a totally different thing? I would never use straight bleach. Two teaspoons (10 ml) in a litre of water is the recommended spray solution here (BC, Canada).
but you need to use it twice as according to the rules you have to do 2 separate operations - clean then sanitise... So the multi-function stuff at first sight seems somewhat sub-optimal...
-Gordon
the local health unit requires manual dishwashing to be done. They like the use of bleach as a sanitizer because it easy to test the concentration.
Gerhard