Hygiene in Commercial Dishwashing – A Review about the State of Knowledge in Research, Standardization, Regulation and Market Information

Abstract

The current state of knowledge about hygiene (efficacy testing) in commercial dishwashers will be collated in this review. Therefore, studies about hygiene in commercial dishwashing are summarised and existing standards, guidelines and the legislative basis described. Finally, examples of information available from the market, for example, detergents are presented. The use of bioindicators contaminated with bovine albumin, mucin, corn starch and Enterococcus faecium is widely established in studies, which was the basis for the introduction of standards. Standards prescribe minimum temperatures for cleaning and rinsing, and most of them provide microbiological testing methods. A worldwide standardized test method for hygiene in commercial dishwashers would guarantee the comparability of country-specific standards but procedures currently available would need great efforts to be unified. A definition of a specified hygiene target level on cleaned dish items would also be meaningful because a harmless level of microorganisms can be achieved with it regardless of the initial microbial count or the process used.

Sustainability in the Generation of Household Waste from Dishwasher Sponges for the Purpose of a New Adsorbent Material and Its Operating Costs

“…The problems associated with these materials are caused by the inefficiency of recycling, where dishwashing sponges are not easily recyclable due to the complex combination of materials, which end up in landfills or being incinerated, further increasing environmental problems, especially in regions of countries considered in development. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) [2], Brazil is the fourth largest producer of plastic waste in the world, behind the United States, China, and India, with only 1.2% of the total recycled in 2016 second [3,4].…”