Is sanitising of fresh fruit and vegetables mandatory?
Fresh cut fruit and vegetables are high risk foods and must therefore be washed and sanitised in 100ppm chlorine as per the NSW Food Authority Guidelines. Washing raw produce with a bleach solution (sodium hypochlorite) of 100 parts per million has been shown to reduce the number of micro-organisms. If you are not currently using a chemical sanitiser, contact your chemical supplier and request them to provide your service with a sanitising product. The levels of sanitiser must be checked every time it is used. Your supplier will provide you with a colour dosage chart which clearly references the 100ppm and a monitoring record. This is done easily by using pH strips to check the level of solution. For example, 100 parts per million is the equivalent to 1 ml per 1000ml of water. So in a 10L sink, 10 ml of solution would need to be used. Once product has been washed in sanitiser it must not be rinsed. If a fruit or vegetable cannot be sanitised without affecting the texture or flavour the
