Commercial cleaning: Hygiene standards specific to restaurants, laundries and agri-food companies

Certain sectors of activity are particularly controlled in order to certify compliance with hygiene standards. Two of them are mainly targeted: HACCP and RABC. To help you meet these standards, working with a specialized cleaning companies is very useful.

The HACCP standard

Behind this acronym is the English term Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point. It is a risk analysis and control method used to determine the various control points and define measures to control hazards.

While HACCP is not a standard in itself but a method, it is used to determine the ISO 2200 standard, an international standard to prevent food safety risks.

It is therefore a tool made available to food professionals to help them ensure optimal hygiene on the products they work with.

The process

It is based on 3 main actions:

• Evaluation of physical hazards, from materials such as wood or glass. For example, wooden pass-throughs are prohibited in restaurants because they may carry bacteria.
• Evaluation of biological hazards.
• Evaluation of chemical risks: presence of additives, pesticides...

The companies concerned with HACCP

Since 2005, HACCP has been interested in all agri-food companies and a guide to good hygiene practices has been published. This concerns:

• Professionals in the food industry: restaurants, caterers, butchers, bakeries, fish shops, grocery stores....
• Food producers.
• Logistics, storage and handling companies.
• Cleaning companies or manufacturers of cleaning products.

It should also be noted that the HACCP standard is not an obligation but is based on the principle of voluntary action.

The RABC standard

The term RABC stands for Risk Analysis Bio-contamination Control. This standard focuses on the specific laundry sector. Why? It is estimated that 20 % of nosocomial diseases are transmitted by tissues, particularly in hospitals.

RABC therefore concerns textile cleaning companies and laundries, which thus set up a system for analysing and controlling the risks of microbiological contamination.

This standard is based on several fundamental areas of work:

• The precise listing of microbiological hazards.
• The definition of possible control points.
• The establishment of tolerance thresholds.
• The proposal of remedial actions.

It is therefore preferable to turn to cleaning service providers which respect this method, as it is the hallmark of quality and reliability in terms of hygiene.