How I Use the Sanitiser Use and Method Template with Customers in Pilla
Sanitiser is the most misunderstood chemical in a kitchen. I've walked into hundreds of kitchens where staff spray sanitiser onto a greasy surface, wipe it off three seconds later, and genuinely believe the surface is safe. It's not. The sanitiser couldn't reach the surface through the grease, and it didn't have enough contact time to kill anything even if it could. That spray-and-wipe routine is one of the most common food safety failures I see, and it's one of the easiest to fix once people understand how sanitisers actually work.
The gap is usually knowledge, not effort. Staff want to do it right. They just haven't been told that sanitisers are disinfectants, not cleaners, and that a surface needs to be physically clean before a sanitiser can do its job. This article covers what your sanitiser policy needs to include, gives you a template you can edit for your own operation, and explains what I focus on when I'm reviewing this with a customer.
Key Takeaways
- What is sanitiser use and method in food safety? A sanitiser use policy covers the correct selection, dilution, application, and contact time for sanitiser chemicals used on food contact surfaces and equipment. It sits alongside your cleaning procedures as part of your prerequisite programmes
- Why do you need a sanitiser use policy? Regulation (EC) 852/2004 requires food business operators to keep surfaces clean and disinfected to a standard that prevents contamination. Your EHO will check that your team knows the difference between cleaning and disinfecting, and that your sanitiser meets British Standards
- How do you set it up in Pilla? Use the knowledge hub template below, edit it to match your operation, and share it with your team through the app so everyone has access and you can track who's read it
- How do you automate the follow-up? Set up Poppi to chase staff who haven't acknowledged the policy and flag when it's due for review
Article Content
Understanding What's Required of You
Sanitiser chemicals are used alongside hard surface cleaners and degreasers to disinfect surfaces and equipment in food businesses. The critical distinction is that sanitisers are mainly disinfectants with limited cleaning ability. They can reduce bacteria to a safe level on a lightly soiled surface, but they cannot cut through grease, remove food residue, or break down allergen proteins. If you spray sanitiser onto a dirty surface, the chemical sits on top of the contamination instead of contacting the surface underneath.
This is the single most important concept in the entire policy: sanitisers cannot disinfect properly if food residues and chemical residues remain on a surface. When a surface is heavily soiled, has allergen residues, or has tenacious grease, a hard surface cleaner or degreaser must be used first. The cleaning removes the contamination. The sanitiser then kills the bacteria. Two stages, two chemicals, in the right order.
The legal basis is Regulation (EC) 852/2004, which requires food business operators to keep premises clean and, where necessary, disinfected to a standard that prevents contamination of foodstuffs. Your EHO will want to see that your team understands the difference between cleaning and disinfecting, that your sanitiser meets the relevant British Standard, and that staff know the correct dilution and contact time for the products they're using.
There are two British Standards that apply: BSEN 1276:1997 and BSEN 13697:2001. A sanitiser meeting one of these standards will kill 99.999% of micro-organisms on a surface when used correctly. That distinction matters. A product that kills 90% sounds effective, but if you start with a million bacteria, you're left with 100,000. A compliant sanitiser leaves you with 10. Supermarket antibacterial sprays rarely meet these standards. You need a commercial supplier.
I spend more time on sanitiser use than almost any other topic during reviews. Not because the rules are complicated, but because the gap between what people think they're doing and what's actually happening is wider here than anywhere else. A chef who grabs the sanitiser spray and wipes a bench in three seconds has ticked "clean" in their head. But the contact time wasn't met, the dilution might be wrong, and if there was grease on the surface, the sanitiser did nothing at all.
Setting It Up as a Knowledge Hub Entry
I've built a sanitiser use and method template in Pilla covering British Standards for disinfection, dilution requirements, contact time, and which surfaces need sanitising. It gives you a structured starting point, but you should edit it to reflect the products and procedures your kitchen actually uses.
In the knowledge hub, create a new entry and tag it with "Food Safety Management System". Use the same tag across all of your food safety policies so they are grouped together and Poppi can track them as a set. Assign the entry to all teams so that everyone in the business can access it.
The template is designed to be edited, not just filed. Read through every section. Where it references a dilution rate, replace it with the exact rate from your product's data sheet. If your sanitiser requires rinsing after contact time, add that. If you use a specific dosing system, describe it. The EHO wants to see that your policy reflects your operation, not that you've copied a generic document.
Sanitiser chemicals are used in the catering industry, along with hard surface cleaners/degreasers to clean and disinfect surfaces and equipment.
Sanitisers can, if used correctly, reduce bacteria to a safe level on surfaces but can present hazards if not used correctly.
Training of staff in how to carry out cleaning procedures is very important and well as staff understanding how cleaners and sanitisers work.
Sanitisers are mainly disinfectants, with limited cleaning ability on lightly soiled surfaces. When surfaces that are highly contaminated, have allergen residues present on them or have tenacious or heavy soiling, then a hard surface cleaner/degreaser should be used every time before the sanitiser is used to ensure thorough cleaning has removed residues before the sanitizer can be applied.
Sanitisers cannot disinfect properly if food residues and chemical residues remain on a surface.
Safety Points
British Standards for Disinfection
Sanitiser used in the food industry must meet one of two standards, namely:
- BSEN 1276:1997
- BSEN 13697:2001
These standards ensure that when used correctly the sanitiser will kill 99.999% of micro-organisms on the surface. These sanitisers are mainly available from commercial suppliers of chemicals.
Dilution of Sanitiser
- Follow the manufacturer's instructions regarding the dilution rate
- Over-dilution will inhibit the chemical's ability to kill enough micro-organisms to make a surface clean
- Overconcentration of the sanitiser will not kill extra bacteria but can result in chemical contamination of surfaces
Contact Time
- Contact time required is critical to the levels of bacteria that will be killed on the surface
- Full contact time must be observed as per manufacturer's instructions
Use of Sanitiser
- In catering not all surfaces need sanitising, e.g. floors and table legs
- Sanitising/disinfecting once a week is good practice as it lowers residual levels of microbiological contaminants in the immediate environment
- The most critical surfaces for cleaning are ones where food or food packaging comes into contact, therefore all food preparation surfaces as well as fridges, food prep sinks etc.
- Surfaces and equipment that can present a hazard from microbiological cross contamination by the fact that they are often touched by lots of staff, often referred to as touch points, e.g. taps, fridge handles, drawer handles, light switches, sanitiser bottles themselves etc.
This is a preview of the template. In Pilla, you can edit this to match your business.
What I'd want to see when reviewing this:
The British Standards section is the foundation. I'd want to confirm that the sanitiser you're actually using meets BSEN 1276:1997 or BSEN 13697:2001, and that you can show me where on the bottle or data sheet that standard is listed. If you can't point to it, you don't know whether your product works to the required level.
Dilution is where most kitchens go wrong in practice. The template covers the principle, but I'd want to see that you've added your specific product's dilution rate. Over-dilution means the chemical can't kill enough micro-organisms. Over-concentration doesn't kill extra bacteria but can leave chemical residue on surfaces that contaminates food. The correct dilution is exact, not approximate.
Contact time is the other half of that equation. The surface must stay wet with sanitiser for the full contact time specified by the manufacturer. I'd want to see your specific contact time written into the policy so staff know the number, not just the concept.
The section on which surfaces need sanitising is one I pay close attention to. Food preparation surfaces, food prep sinks, fridge interiors, and any surface where food or food packaging comes into contact are the priority. Then there are touch points: taps, fridge handles, drawer handles, light switches, and the sanitiser bottles themselves. Touch points get handled by multiple staff throughout a shift and spread contamination hand to hand even though food doesn't contact them directly. Not all surfaces need daily sanitising. Floors and table legs, for example, benefit from weekly disinfection but don't need it every day.
Common mistakes I see:
Staff treat sanitiser as a cleaner. They spray it onto a surface with visible grease or food residue and wipe it off, assuming the job is done. The template is clear that sanitisers are disinfectants with limited cleaning ability, and that heavy soiling or allergen residues need a hard surface cleaner or degreaser first. If I see a kitchen where the sanitiser is the only chemical being used on prep surfaces, that's a problem.
Dilution rates are treated as a rough guide rather than a specification. I've watched staff fill a spray bottle with a generous glug of concentrate and top up with water, with no measuring. The template specifies following the manufacturer's instructions exactly, and both over-dilution and over-concentration cause problems. Over-dilution means the sanitiser won't kill enough bacteria. Over-concentration means chemical contamination of the surface.
Contact time gets ignored. Staff spray and immediately wipe, which means the sanitiser had no time to work. The template states that full contact time must be observed as per manufacturer's instructions. In a busy kitchen, the fix is simple: spray the surface, go do something else for the required time, then come back and wipe if needed. But if nobody has told the team what the contact time actually is, they've got no chance of meeting it.
Touch points get missed entirely. Kitchens are good at sanitising the obvious surfaces like worktops and chopping boards but forget the handles, taps, switches, and bottles that the template specifically calls out. These are the surfaces that spread contamination between staff members throughout a shift, and they need regular attention during service, not just at the end of the day.
Automate the Follow-Up with Poppi
Writing the policy is one thing. Making sure your team has actually read it is another. Poppi can handle the chasing so you don't have to.
If you mark the knowledge hub entry as mandatory, Poppi will track who's read it and who hasn't. You can set up automations to chase staff who are behind, notify managers when someone completes the policy, and get a regular report showing where the gaps are.
Here are three automations I'd set up for any knowledge hub policy:
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Overdue training reminders
Automatically chase team members who have mandatory policies they haven't read yet. Poppi sends the reminder so you don't have to.
Tom, you have 2 overdue policies to read and acknowledge
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Video completion alerts
Get notified when a team member finishes reading or watching a policy, so you can track progress without chasing.
Emma has completed a mandatory policy
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.
Training gap analysis
Get a regular AI report showing which team members are behind on mandatory policies and where the gaps are across your team.
Training Report: 87% team completion. Tom and Sarah behind on 2 mandatory policies, due 3 days ago.