It is important to differentiate and define certain terminology:
Sterilize refers to the statistical destruction and removal of all living organisms.
Disinfect refers to inanimate objects and the destruction of all vegetative cells (not spores).
Sanitize refers to the reduction of microorganisms to levels considered safe from a public health viewpoint.
Appropriate and approved sanitization procedures are processes, and,
thus, the duration or time as well as the chemical conditions must be
described. The official definition (Association of Official Analytical
Chemists) of sanitizing for food product contact surfaces is a process
which reduces the contamination level by 99.999% (5 logs) in 30 sec.
The official definition for non-product contact surfaces requires a
contamination reduction of 99.9% (3 logs). The standard test organisms
used are Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.
General types of sanitization include the following:
Thermal Sanitization involves the use of hot water or steam for a specified temperature and contact time.
Chemical Sanitization involves the use of an approved chemical sanitizer at a specified concentration and contact time.
