On the 11th of May 2020, Cedar Meats reached out to SGA under the instruction of the Victorian Department of Health to consult us, as industry leaders, to conduct an antiviral deep clean in their Brooklyn facility to ensure remediation of the coronavirus contamination. 

Between the 11th and the 14th of May, we developed a bespoke cleaning process and detailed digital training with over 130 modules allowing our hygiene specialists to step into the facility completely scoped, and strongly versed in the cleaning and coronavirus procedures we developed. In addition, our hygiene specialists gained a robust understanding of the facility and its machinery before entry. 

On the 14th of May, we began the anti-viral deep clean in Cedar Meats facility.  

So how did we conduct our viricidal deep clean of Cedar?

Firstly, we responded promptly. Within 30 hours of being contacted, we had prepared a proposal/quote and delivered it to Cedar. Our preventative and reactive COVID-19 online trainings developed for the Australian Defence Force gave us the knowledge and expertise to complete a time-sensitive and important proposal so quickly.

Prior to SGA arriving on-site, Cedar meats had already done a post-production clean – completing an industry-standard wet clean via hose delivery.

The SGA viricidal clean process:

The SGA deep clean was focused on one aspect – Reducing the COVID-19 viral load to 0 in both the air and on hard surfaces. As such, our decontamination was split into two different categories, with unique cleaning processes – Amenities and Production. 

The production process:

· Apply Ecolab Sanimaxx at 2000 ppm (free chlorine equivalent), which is a much higher concentration than standard no-rinse dilution. The rationale behind using a higher concentrate was to improve the residual kill of micros at a higher log reduction. We used battery powered spray packs as our sanitizer delivery method along with existing piped foaming units. The sanitizer was left to dwell on all surfaces to maximise its capacity to denature the DNA of COVID-19. The plan was put forward to Cedar Meats to arrange a thorough rinse before production to eliminate the chance of any sanitizer making its way into the food chain.

· The SGA team paid special attention to high touch areas or specific hotspots that had been identified within the production areas.

· The production area and was cleaned systematically following correct hygienic sequencing to ensure there was no recontamination from rooms yet to be sanitised.

The amenity areas:

· In the Amenities Areas the SGA team applied a combination of Ecolab Sanimaxx at 2000ppm and Ecolab Blazer Clear (at 75% alcohol equivalents). The difference being, Blazer Clear is more appropriate for applications on electronic as it evaporates without causing any damage.

· Once again special attention was given to high touch items and hotspots. 

· All high touch items that hold little value were disposed of. An example of this was all items in the fridge were disposed of before the fridge was sanitised thoroughly. 

What PPE did SGA use to complete such a clean?

When entering a facility that has had a COVID-19 outbreak it is critical to treat everything within the premises as contaminated. As such, all PPE was put on in the car park before entering the building and all PPE was disposed of before leaving the site – placed into biohazard bags and thrown into the bin onsite. 

The PPE is listed below:

Head protection: SGA helmets (disinfected at the end clean)

Eye protection: clear safety glasses

Breathing protection: P2 mask – disposed of after use / when taking breaks

Hand protection: nitrile gloves 46cm

Foot protection: steel capped gumboots/safety gumboots

Body protection: jack pants & Shirt worn under full coverage disposable coveralls. Production cleaners wore a Bib and brace over trousers as an additional waterproof third layer.

The result:

SGA’s hygiene specialist’s documented & recorded from beginning to end the entire cleaning process. Including 100s of photos, including detailed descriptions of every decontamination process in every room on-site, using our in-house cloud-based auditing solution.

The complete audit was then made available to different levels of government as well as our primary customer.

Thanks for reading, hope you got some valuable insight from this week’s post. If you enjoyed please like, comment or share.

Kind regards, The SGA Team