Hygiene in food processing
© Woodhead Publishing Limited, 2014
As general recommendations, about a 1% caustic soda solution is
suffi cient for cleaning storage tanks, pipelines and fermentation tanks,
1–2% for cleaning multi-purpose tanks and plate heat exchangers and
2–3% for cleaning ultra-high temperature (UHT) plants. However, up to
5% may be necessary to clean heavily soiled equipment (Timperley &
Smeulders, 1988 ). Acid solutions are normally used in the region of < 1%,
since at higher concentrations corrosion of metal surfaces may occur
(Majoor, 2003 ).