Regulatory procedures for disinfectants in Europe

The general approach to hygiene in the food industry has been changed by the publication of European Directive 93/43 of 14 June 1993, with the adoption of a new approach to quality control taking into account HACCP. It contains few specific requirements but general rules and among them the cleaning and disinfection procedures. This review difficult to build found that disinfectants have a highly diverse regulatory status: no approval system at all for disinfectants used in food industry; approval system only for some food (milk) and no for other (meat); specific legislation depending of the type of production or consumption: general regulation whatever the types of foodstuff; voluntary guidelines developed by scientific association with disinfectant committees. Other aspects, such as toxicology and residue, are sometimes included in the regulations or are lied within the responsibilities of the manufacturer or the distributor. During this lecture we are trying to compare the different system in taking into account different parameters such as: Ministry in charge-voluntary system-actives substances-specialites: positive, negative or no list-requirement on the biodegradability-efficacy test (laboratory or field test)-bactericidal, fungicidal, virucidal activities-rinsing after disinfection.