Link to an amendment published at 85 FR 68673, Oct. 29, 2020.

Link to an amendment published at 85 FR 68680, Oct. 29, 2020.

(a) Cleaning.

(1) Equipment used in egg processing operations which comes in contact with liquid eggs or exposed edible products shall be cleaned to eliminate organic matter and inorganic residues. This may be accomplished by any sanitary means but it is preferable (unless high pressure cleaning is used) to flush soiled equipment with clean cool water, dismantle it when possible, wash by brushing with warm water containing a detergent and followed by rinsing with water. It is essential to have the equipment surfaces thoroughly clean if effective sanitizing is to be attained.

(2) Equipment shall be cleaned with such frequency as is specified elsewhere under the sanitary requirements for the particular kind of operation and type of equipment involved.

(3) C.I.P. (cleaned-in-place) shall be considered to be acceptable only if the methods and procedures used accomplish cleaning equivalent to that obtained by thorough manual washing and sanitizing of dismantled equipment. The Administrator shall determine the acceptability of C.I.P. cleaning procedures and may require bacteriological tests and periodic dismantling of equipment as a basis for such determination.

(b) Sanitizing.

(1) Sanitizing shall be accomplished by such methods as approved by the Administrator.

(i) Chemicals and compounds used for sanitizing shall have approval by the Administrator prior to use.

(ii) Sanitizing by use of hypochlorites or other approved sanitizing solutions shall be accomplished by subjecting the equipment surfaces to such sanitizing solution containing a maximum strength of 200 p.p.m. of available chlorine or its equivalent. These solutions shall be changed whenever the strength drops to 100 p.p.m. or less of available chlorine or its equivalent.

(2) Shell eggs which have been sanitized and equipment which comes in contact with edible products shall be rinsed with clean water after sanitizing if other than hypochlorites are used as sanitizing agents unless otherwise approved by the Administrator.