Bisado Engineers

Clean In Place (CIP)

What is “cleaning in place”?

Cleaning in place, or CIP, refers to all those mechanical and chemical systems that are
necessary to prepare equipment for food processing, either after a processing run that has
produced normal fouling or when switching a processing line from one recipe to another.
Cleaning in place means that cleaning takes place without dismantling the system.

Why is CIP important?

CIP is an important component in guaranteeing food safety in food processing plants.
Successful cleaning between production runs avoids potential contamination and products that
don’t meet quality standards. Carrying out CIP correctly – from design to validation – ensures
secure barriers between food flows and cleaning chemical flows.

Food soiling
After production using processing equipment, the plant is more or less soiled with the food
products that have been inside the plant. As an example, after a tank filled with cream or
yoghurt has been emptied it may look like the two first photos on the left.

Organic soils include fats, oils, grease, protein, starch and other carbohydrates. If these
components have been heated during processing, the heat may have induced reactions in the
soil matrix that make them more difficult to remove. Proteins may, for example, denature and
induce further cross-linking reactions with other protein.

molecules (see photo above on UHT milk) or may also react with carbohydrates and cause
Maillard reactions (caramelization) to take place. Organic soil is most often dissolved by
alkaline detergents.

Inorganic soils include mineral and salt deposits. The most common inorganic soil is
limescale formed due to high water hardness. Milkstone is also a common inorganic soil.
Inorganic soils are most often dissolved by acid.
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Dairy soiling
In a dairy plant there is a clear distinction between soil created on surfaces that are cold, i.e.
below 60 °C, and soil created on hot surfaces that are over 60 °C. Examples of cold surfaces
are tanks, pumps and pipes

Protein fouling Mineral fouling

Cleaning in place
Cleaning cooking vessels at home is performed by hand. In the food industry this is called
“cleaning out of place”, or COP. All equipment is dismantled and cleaned manually.

Today this has been replaced with CIP, cleaning in place, in most parts of the food industry
where food is pumped and undergoes continuous processes. Some equipment still needs to be
dismantled and manually cleaned, but wherever possible, CIP is the preferred choice. In CIP
the equipment is not dismantled, but is cleaned in the same set-up as it was used during
production. Cleaning liquid is then circulated through the equipment in a cleaning circuit.

Cleaning parameters
Soil is held on the surfaces by adhesive forces. To get the soil to leave a surface the forces
that hold the impurity on the surface have to be overcome. How can we do that?
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There are four parameters that make up cleaning:

Mechanical force, thermal force (heat), chemical force and the time the forces act.

Mechanical force
The mechanical force in cleaning in place is the shear forces created by the flow. Compare
cleaning a car with a nozzle on the water hose or without a nozzle. With a nozzle the area
through which the water is passing is restricted which increases the velocity of the water and
the water jet gets “harder”.

Pipe Diameter Flow (l/h) Volume (litres/100m pipe)

25.0 mm (1”) ~ 2 070 ~ 40

38.0 mm (1.5”) ~ 5 100 ~ 99

51.0 mm (2”) ~ 9 600 ~ 184

63.5 mm (25”) ~ 15 400 ~ 287

76.0 mm (3”) ~ 22 500 ~ 408

101.6 mm (4”) ~ 40 200 ~ 748

Thermal force
The third force to use is thermal force, heat. Molecules move faster at an elevated
temperature and therefore the effectiveness of a detergent is increased with increased
temperatue.
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Type of Temperature
Cleaning objects
detergent range (°C)

NaOH 60-80 °C Milk collection tankers, tanks and pipes

70-90 °C Milk pasteurizers

90-140 °C UHT plants

HNO3 60-65 °C Tanks, pipes, milk pasteurizers

80-85 °C UHT plants

Time
The fourth and last parameter is time: how much time the other three forces are in action.
Eventually most surfaces will be clean but it will just take longer if the optimal temperature is
not used or the correct concentration of detergent or a non-sufficient flow is used.

Cleaning procedures
As part of a normal production cycle, for example, between product runs, it is standard
procedure to finalize the production cycle by pushing out the food product with water before
the cleaning procedure starts.

The procedure for cleaning a plant often follows these steps.

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Design of CIP systems
The CIP system

An entire CIP system consists of a CIP station + CIP distribution lines + the objects to be
cleaned.

There are in principle two types of CIP system – centralized or decentralized.

Cleaning verification and validation

Cleaning verification

As there is presently no technique available for measuring cleanliness continuously in line, a

plant has to be opened after cleaning at predetermined critical control points in order to assess
cleanliness in one or more ways:

It has to be visually clean without any product residues. This can be checked with a clean
white cloth.

Test cleanliness microbiologically, by wiping swabs in certain patterns over specific areas.
But incubation and analysis of the samples does take some time.

A quicker method is to test for the presence of Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) using an
enzyme from the firefly (luciferase) that emits light when in contact with ATP. The level of
luminescence can then be measured easily, proving the presence of a living organism, or of a
substance produced by a living organism.

Cleaning validation
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It’s one thing to verify the cleaning effectiveness of a particular cleaning cycle. But how can
you know if you are systematically following good cleaning regimens that consistently
produce an acceptable result that minimizes the risks of spoiled products?

A structured method to validate cleaning must accomplish two things:

It verifies the effectiveness of the cleaning procedure for removal of product residues.

It documents evidence that the cleaning process removes residues to predetermined

acceptable levels – repeatedly and reliably.

A complete validation process might include all these elements:

• Design qualification

• Hygienic design

• Hygienic risk assessments

• Installation qualification – Checklist of critical areas

• Operational qualification – Checklist of critical areas

• Performance qualification

• Monitor/record critical CIP parameters

• The mechanical force during cleaning is measured by a flow transmitter.

• The thermal force is measured by temperature transmitters.

• Chemical force (detergent concentration) is measured indirectly by electrical

conductivity.
• Demonstrate effectiveness and reproducibility of the cleaning process
• Verify that the equipment is cleaned according to predetermined acceptable levels
Water quality.
Food processing plants require lots of good quality water – at least drinking water quality –
but there are also other requirements that are important for maintaining stainless steel
equipment in good operating condition.

Soft 0 – 6 °dH

Medium hard 6 – 12 °dH

Hard 12 – 18 °dH

Very hard > 18 °dH

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Detergents
It is important to understand how detergents are used in cleaning procedures in order to achieve
optimal cleaning results – and without wasting money on unnecessary chemicals that further
burden the environment.
Surfactants, or wetting agents, that lower surface tension, enabling them to wet a surface more
effectively and make cleaning more efficient.

Sequestering agents can bind calcium and magnesium ions in order to soften water.

Complex-forming agents can only bind one metal ion per molecule in contrast to sequestering
agents, which can bind to a number of metal ions.

Oxidation Agents can boost cleaning effects. Examples are sodium hypochlorite and hydrogen
peroxide.

Detergent concentrations

The detergent solution should be used at a certain concentration, so it is important to know the
starting concentration and how to calculate the volume of water needed to achieve desired
concentration. The unit for concentration used in industry is percent (%), but it is important to
distinguish between weight% and volume%.

Concentration ranges of pure chemicals

NaOH (sodium hydroxide) 25-45 wt%

HNO3 (nitric acid) 52-68 wt%

H3PO4 (phosphoric acid) 75-85 wt%

Sterilization and disinfection of food processing lines

Cleaning, sterilization and disinfection of processing lines are performed before production re-
starts. Sterilization is performed in aseptic lines and lines for extended shelf life (ESL)
products. Disinfection is used in non-aseptic production lines (except ESL lines).

After sterilization all microorganisms are inactivated or removed from the surface. Disinfection
inactivates all pathogenic microorganisms and reduces the total amount of microorganisms on
the surface. Both sterilization and disinfection require cleaning first to be successful.

Cleaning

Before sterilization or disinfection is done a proper cleaning of the surfaces has to be

performed. Cleaning removes the organic soil that can protect the microorganisms from
sterilization and disinfection. Cleaning can also reduce the number of microorganisms on the
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surface and thus make it easier to sterilize or disinfect. Chemical disinfection is usually more
sensitive to how well cleaning is performed than disinfection with heat.

Sterilization

Sterilization is the complete destruction or elimination of all living microorganisms, viable

spores, viruses, and viroids. Sterilization can be accomplished by physical (dry or moist heat)
and/or chemical methods.

Sterilization of food processing lines with circulation systems are usually done with moist heat.
Sterilization can be performed with steam under pressure that gives a temperature of 125 °C
for 30 minutes.

Disinfection

Disinfection is a process by which microorganisms are reduced to a level that does not
compromise food safety or suitability and is done with chemical and/or physical methods. The
major aim of disinfection is to inactivate microorganisms that are harmful to humans. (The
term sanitization is more commonly used in the food industry in the USA.)

Disinfection of food processing lines with circulation systems can be done with moist heat (hot
water at 90-95 °C for 15-20 min or steam <1 bar) or at room temperature using chemicals, to
save energy. Disinfection with chemicals requires rinsing with water after disinfection.