Cleaning organics and pathogens

Q: We are looking for a cleaning solution for machines (including electronics parts and sensors) processing blood. These machines are medical devices. We need a detergent to clean organic debris, deactivate pathogens, and which is not corrosive. We found Detojet solution in your website. Do you know if this detergent is suitable for our application, or do you advise another one?

A: For removal of biologic and organic matter in medical devices, we first recommend Tergazyme® Enzyme-Active Powdered Detergent. It is a powerful emulsifier of organic and oily residues, enhanced with protein enzymes to break down biologic residues.  

We also have a video you can check out:

If a low foaming detergent is needed, we would recommend the Detojet® Low Foaming Liquid Detergent you mentioned, or Alcojet® Low Foaming Powdered Detergent, taking advantage of the oxidizers in those detergents for biologic residue removal.  Low foaming options allow for easier cleaning of narrow ID piping/tubing.  Further, Detojet detergent, which is surfactant-free, is ideal for cleaning sensitive plastics such as polycarbonate, often found in medical devices.

The Detojet detergent is not intended to replace a bleach step for disinfection/deactivation purposes but is part of the necessary step to clean prior to disinfection/deactivation.  As it is a detergent, it uses multiple cleaning mechanisms to clean, not just the hypochlorite-based oxidation. 

Based on the specific cleaning conditions and mechanisms, setup, application, time, temperature, etc. you may ultimately find a bleach step is not needed.  But that is quite case dependent.

We would recommend, as a best practice, based on regulations from the US EPA and FDA, as well as the WHO, that cleaning and disinfection be two separate steps.  Here are several articles which elaborate on both the bleach and cleaning/disinfection matter.

• Bleach and Detojet?
• Bleach with Detergents for Disinfection?
• Clean Before Sterilization (Disinfection)

To request any Alconox Inc. detergents 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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Contact us any time: cleaning@alconox.com