Food Safety and Environmental Services

Food Equipment Cleaning and Sanitizing: Water Chemistry and Quality, Sanitizer Properties

Table 3 - Comparison of the Chemical and Physical Properties in Commonly Used Sanitizers*
Property	Chlorine	Iodophors	Quarternary-ammonium compounds	Acid anionic	Fatty Acid	Peroxyacetic acid
Corrosive	Corrosive	Slightly corrosive	Noncorrosive	Slightly corrosive	Slightly corrosive	Slightly corrosive
Irritating to skin	Irritating	Not irritating	Not irritating	Slightly irritating	Slightly irritating	Not irritating
Effective at neutral pH	Yes	Depends on type	In most cases	No	No	Yes
Effective at acid pH	Yes, but unstable	Yes	In some cases	Yes, below 3.0-3.5	Yes, below 3.5-4.0	Yes
Effective at alkaline pH	Yes, but less than at neutral pH	No	In most cases	No	No	Less effective
Affected by organic material	Yes	Moderately	Moderately	Moderately	Partically	Partially
Affected by water hardness	No	Slightly	Yes	Slightly	Slightly	Slightly
Residual antimicrobial activity	None	Moderate	Yes	Yes	Yes	None
Cost	Low	High	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate
Incompatibilities	Acid solutions, phenols, amines	Highly alkaline detergents	Anionic wetting agents, soaps, and acids	Cationic surfactants and alkaline detergents	Cationic surfactants and alkaline detergents	Reducing agents, metal ions, strong alkalies
Stability of use solution	Dissipates rapidly	Dissipates slowly	Stable	Stable	Stable	Dissipates slowly
Maximum level permitted by FDA without rinse	200ppm	25ppm	200ppm	Varied	Varied	100-200ppm
Water temperature sensitivity	None	High	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate	None
Foam level	None	Low	Moderate	Low/Moderate	Low	None
Phosphate	None	High	None	High	Moderate	None
Soil load tolerance	None	Low	High	Low	Low	Low

*Comparisons made at approved 'no-rinse use' levels. Adapted from B.R. Cords and G.R. Dychdala, 1993.