Laundry hygiene
Please always start with a clear entry definition - Campaign 14:25, 10 Mar. 2009 (CET)
Textiles that are used in hygienically demanding areas such as the food industry (food production and processing companies), food retail, medicine / health sector, clean rooms , pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry or gastronomy must be of adequate purity and microbiological quality.
Depending on the area in which the textiles are used, there are different requirements for the preparation and the microbiological quality of the textiles. In the following, processing is the washing and drying / smoothing or restoring of the basic state of the textiles. Not only the textiles themselves are subject to hygienic regulations; In order to achieve the necessary microbiological quality, the environment around the textiles in the laundry (so-called laundry- related surfaces) must also be low in germs. Hygienic measures (e.g. hand disinfection) are also specified in special hygiene plans for the laundry staff . Furthermore, the water used to prepare the textiles must be of drinking water quality.
Health sector
The healthcare sector is usually meant in the hospital sector. Under certain circumstances (e.g. due to hospital-like structures) old people's and nursing homes also use textiles that are subject to the requirements of the hospital sector during processing. The aim when handling laundry or using textiles in such hygiene areas is to avoid infectious diseases or to keep the risk of infection as low as possible.
The necessary quality or the maximum permissible germ content on the textiles is specified in guidelines with legal character (e.g. EU and RKI guidelines (RKI: Robert Koch Institute )) or by national and international standards. For example, for certain surgical textiles, microbiological requirements are also specified within the framework of European standardization (DIN EN 13795).
In practice, this means that hospital textiles for other medical areas (i.e. textiles that do not need to be sterilized) may have a maximum germ count in 9 out of 10 samples according to the RKI of 20 colony-forming units (CFU) per dm² of textile surface. In general, there must be no pathogenic microorganisms on the textiles.
Food sector
The DIN 10524 standard (food hygiene - work clothing in food companies) contains specifications for the manufacture, use and recycling of work clothing in food companies in order to ensure various quality requirements. The aim of DIN 10524, which is closely related to the Food Hygiene Ordinance (LMHV), is to avoid adverse effects on food that can be caused by unsuitable work clothing. When the textiles are reprocessed, hygienic cleaning must be ensured in accordance with DIN 10524. According to DIN 10524, the reprocessing of textiles in private households is not compatible with a quality management system for hygienically demanding areas and does not guarantee the reliable restoration of an appropriate hygienic status of the textiles.
In connection with the introduction of the HACCP concept, the food industry also requires the textile service providers to provide evidence of the hygienic harmlessness of the processed textiles. A further increase in quality requirements can be seen here in the International Food Standard (IFS), which is based on the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), which was founded to improve food safety. In the fifth version of the IFS, which has been binding since January 2008, two new requirements with regard to textile hygiene have been integrated:
- The work clothes must be cleaned regularly and thoroughly. On the basis of a process and product-oriented risk analysis , the laundry must be cleaned by a contract laundry or by employees themselves
- There are guidelines for cleaning and procedures for checking the purity of protective clothing .
Since a reproducible microbiological quality of textiles cannot generally be guaranteed by washing the textiles in the household and therefore washing the textiles in the household is not advised in other guidelines and standards, the reprocessing must be carried out by professional laundries or textile service companies. The textiles are then prepared for disinfection using validated washing processes and handed over to the customer with low germs or, if necessary, sterile (validated washing process: documented process for producing, recording and interpreting the required results to show that the washing process is constantly complying with the specified specifications (e.g. B. chemothermal disinfecting effect) corresponds).
For the food sector, the microbiological limit values for textiles are specified in DIN 10524. Accordingly, the CFU per dm² of textile surface must not exceed 50 (in 9 out of 10 samples). Here, too, the following applies: human pathogens (human pathogens: capable of causing a disease in humans) germs must not be detected.
In order to maintain a defined microbiological quality, laundries and textile service companies are introducing more and more RABC systems (risk analysis and bio-contamination control systems). This modern quality and hygiene management system according to DIN EN 14065 (textiles, textiles processed in laundries, control system biocontamination) is similar to the HACCP concept, which has been very successful for decades . It is intended to ensure that the textiles are returned to the customer (food company) in a reproducible state of quality and hygiene.
Sources and references
- ↑ http://www.beuth.de/langbeispiel/DIN+EN+13795-3/86324551.html
- ↑ http://www.beuth.de/langbeispiel/DIN+10524/69940784.html
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.beuth.de/langbeispiel/DIN+EN+14065/53525349.html
