Cleaning Validation of Food Production Equipment by TOC and TN Measurement

Cleaning validation is the process of checking for residues of the previous product after production equipment is cleaned. Factories producing food products attach high priority to cleaning validation from the viewpoints of quality control and safety. In some cases, the organic matter in food products contains proteins and/or amino acids. The content of organic matter can be evaluated by total organic carbon (TOC), and the concentration of proteins and amino acids, which are nitrogen compounds, can be evaluated by total nitrogen (TN). Therefore, it is possible to confirm whether the production equipment has been cleaned properly by measuring the TOC and TN of the rinse water used to clean the equipment. In this example, cleaning was confirmed by measuring the TOC/TN of the rinse water when cleaning a container in which vinegar had been introduced, using a system consisting of a Total Organic Carbon Analyzer TOC-L, which utilizes the combustion catalytic oxidation method developed by Shimadzu, and a TN (Total Nitrogen) Unit TNM-L.