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Cleaning of the environment and equipments represents an essential element to prevent the toxicological infections of aliments. Otherwise, the sensation of cleaning does not ever correspond to a real hygienic condition. For a real sanification it is necessary, in fact, to distinguish between detergency, that consists in a simple removal of visible dirt, and disinfection , that implies instead the elimination of harmful microorganisms living in the environment, on the equipments and on the kitchen-ware.
It is the first phase of the sanification process and its main purpose is to eliminate the visible dirt of organic nature from surfaces such as oil, fat, proteins and sugars. In the kitchen we may find polished surfaces (glass, ceramic, plastic materials); rough ones (for instance metals and marble); pourous ones (wood); fibrous ones (textiles).
Depending on the kind of surface and dirt some factors have to be considered: temperature, contact time with the detergent, mechanical action, the type and concentration of the cleansing agent.
The use of hot water makes dirt softer and speeds up the decomposition process of residuals, making their removal easier.
The duration of contact between detergent and dirt is important most of all in case of large quantity of dirt hard to remove, such as when the washing is done after several hours (in this case the dirt sticks strongly to the surface).
Manual cleaning with detergent solutions (followed by an appropriate disinfection) is the most common practise on a domestic level, and if well done it gives very good results.
It allows to work at a sufficiently high temperature (solution at 40-45ēC/104-113ēF) but in this case the application time and the concentration of detergent are higher than those requested by mechanical methods (dishwasher and washing machine).
In any case, detergency is completed by rinsing, an important stage which is often done with little attention. To rinse a pot we have to turn it upside down an sprinkle it with a water jet which will go down quickly instead of filling it with water and then empty it . In this way we will save time and water.
It is a complementary operation of the detergency and has the purpose to cause a remarkable discrease in number of harmful germs lying on equipments, utensils and environment. We do not have to mistake the disinfection practice for the sterilization one; the latter implies in fact, the whole elimination of any living microbic form, including spores. Normally, on a domestic level, the disinfection is not applied on kitchen-ware and utensils so much, for which we limit ourselves to a careful detergency, but the disinfection is rather practiced to sanify work surfaces periodically: such as tables, sinks, etc.
To obtain good results is important the disinfection being done in a correct way. In particular, the essential condition to use a disinfectant is having already completed the whole detergency phase: we must not ever exchange procedures using a disinfectant before having completely removed the visible dirt.The disinfection systems are of two kinds: chemical and physical.
The chemical systems essentially include the utilization of liquid disinfectants, the most in use in the alimentary field. These disinfectants may be substances of inorganic nature (acids, alkali) or organic ones (for instance alcohol, quaternary ammonium compounds) and they act damaging by contact the vital structures of microorganisms. In case the residuals of the disinfectant are not eliminated in another way (for instance by evaporation) it will be necessary to proceed with a final rinse with drinkable water, which has to be done with a particular care, in order that the toxic residuals of disinfectant do not settle over the cleaned surface.
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