How to prevent listeria with cleaning and disinfection procedures
To have and maintain a high standard of kitchen hygiene by cleaning and disinfecting on a regular basis sounds easy – and it is! You just need to keep a couple of guidelines and awareness about listeria (and bacteria in general) in mind when you follow your cleaning and disinfecting routine.
How to clean and disinfect properly – it is all about correct procedure
Since the contamination can appear on different levels, your kitchen interior can be infected even if it is not visible to the human eye. To comply with this, you have to do your kitchen cleaning in a specific order:
- First, remove all visible contamination on your selected area (meaning food scraps, water and other fluids etc.). Use a cloth or similar.
- Clean the contaminated area with the right type of cleaning product. Follow the instruction on the label of the product in terms of how to use it correctly. Remember always to use cleaning products which are produced for kitchen cleaning purposes. Wipe the cleaned area with water to avoid residues of the cleaning product.
- It is not enough just to use cleaning products to kill bacteria. We always using a disinfectant as well. In order to combat listeria, use a disinfectant produced and approved for the purpose. Remember to check how long the disinfectant has work on the affected surface to have an effect and whether your chosen product requires rinsing with water.
Where to clean and disinfect – guidelines
In general, good kitchen hygiene is the result of a good cleaning process where all contaminated areas are handled and cleaned correctly. In order to prevent listeria, you have to clean and disinfect all the used areas in your kitchen every day or after every use. Listeria can occur on every surface where food, equipment etc. have touched. However, contamination with listeria is often seen in these areas:
- Floors and drains
- Chillers, freezers, exhaust floods and vents
- Used cleaning equipment
- Sinks, countertops and other hard surfaces
- Slicers and other machines.
This list should only be seen as an overall guideline for good cleaning and disinfection practice. Your specific needs for cleaning and disinfection may vary. Therefore, we recommend cleaning all used surfaces every day or after every use. Surfaces or machines that are indirectly exposed to bacteria should also be cleaned often.
Tips to be aware of in your efforts against listeria
When preventing and fighting listeria, cleaning and disinfection combined with structured daily cleaning routines will get you far. Even so, listeria can be a tricky bacteria to handle. In order to win the battle, we have listed some of the pitfalls you should keep in mind in your daily cleaning routine.
Biofilm
As many other bacteria, listeria microorganisms can gather as biofilm on surfaces in your kitchen. Biofilm is a thin film of microorganisms, that can grow on your kitchen surfaces without you even knowing it, as biofilm is often invisible to the human eye.
Biofilm can be very difficult to get rid of if the infected area is not dissolved quickly, because the film can become resistant to cleaning and disinfectants. Therefore you risk using contaminated surfaces in your kitchen area.
Change your disinfectants on a regular basis
In the same way bacteria can become resistant of antibiotics, listeria can become resistant towards your preferred disinfectant. Therefore it is important to change your product for disinfection every month. By not doing so, you risk that listeria bacteria will survive in areas of biofilm, even though you have been cleaning your kitchen with the correct disinfectant.
A good tip to avoid resistance is to always have two types of different disinfectants in stock.
Remember to practice good hand hygiene
With all this attention to kitchen hygiene by cleaning and disinfection methods and products, it is easy to forget the most basic hygienic tip – good hand hygiene. If you do not maintain a high hygienic level on your hands, you risk transmitting bacteria from yourself onto your cleaned kitchen surfaces. Therefore, it is essential always to wash and/or disinfect your hands. Learn more about proper hand hygiene here.
Learn more about preventing Listeria
Maintaining high standards for kitchen hygiene requires guidelines and awareness about listeria and bacteria in general. Find out what to keep in mind.
Cleaning - it's all about protocols
According to WHO, health care facilities should employ specific and routine-based hygiene and cleaning guidelines, also referred to as IPC (Infection Prevention & Control) in order to prevent the spread of HAI’s.
