Cleaning Probiotics with Low Foaming Detergent

Q: We are a medium-sized production company, focused on probiotics manufacturing.  We would like a low foaming detergent to clean our stainless steel production tanks and lines.  The residue can be quite challenging.  Our current low foaming detergent just doesn’t work.

A:  Residue from probiotics, which are microorganisms, will be proteinaceous and organic in nature.  These residues can be adherent and challenging to remove, especially when a low foaming detergent is required.  Recall that low foaming surfactants tend to be less good at emulsifying, and a reliance on chemistry is required for the predominant cleaning mechanism.

Detojet® Low Foaming Liquid Detergent and Solujet® Low-Foaming Phosphate-Free Liquid are both excellent options.  Both are biodegradable, drain safe, completely compatible with stainless steel, and have been in use for decades around the globe in applications just like this.  We would recommend the Detojet detergent where proteinaceous residues are the dominant contaminant sought to be cleaned. Its chelation/hydrolysis will greatly assist in breaking down those challenging protein compounds.   The low foaming surfactants in Solujet detergent will excel at removing the organic residues.

If a powdered detergent is an option, typically not for CIP applications, oxidizing detergents like Alcojet® Low Foaming Powdered Detergent and Tergajet® Low-Foaming Phosphate-Free Detergent should be considered.

Often times, lab and pilot scale trial work can be done to determine, and optimize, which detergent/concentration to use at full scale.

For high foaming applications of probiotics cleaning consider Tergazyme® Enzyme-Active Powdered Detergent as we discussed in a previous article.

To request these or any Alconox Inc. detergent for free, please complete the questionnaire at Get Sample. For more information about any one of our Alconox Inc. detergents, consult the technical bulletin for each product. Or click here to access each of our detergent’s Safety Data Sheets.

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