Hygiene Reference Standard, International Hygiene Advisory Committee

Challenges during the CORONA pandemic

COVID 19 Corona has forced the complete laundry industry to focus on hygiene as the # 01 priority. And this didn’t happen exclusively in de laundry industry, but also their major customers – hospitals, the hospitality industry, the food industry, pharmaceutical companies, etc, etc – had to redefine their priorities.  These industries – in addition – have adapted collection and transport protocols, simply because of the contagious nature of this new Corona virus.  At GBPAP 2020 one will explain the backgrounds why CINET has initiated creating The International Hygiene Advisory Committee. The idea is not only to have the laundry industry better prepared when a new outbreak emerges – but also to bring all hygiene aspects to the forefront of both the laundries and their customers.

Handling linen that is contaminated with virusses isn’t uncommon in the laundry industry. Localised outbreaks of Norovirus happen more frequently than one might think. Example: Between Sept 1 2019 and July 31 2020 there have been 1032 reported outbreaks in the USA alone.

 

International Hygiene Advisory Committee

This summer the initiative was taken to set up a group of international experts who are going to advise the professional textile care industry on hygienical processing and working conditions. This Hygiene Advisory Board is also expected to warn the industry in the future in time when new outbreaks of contagious viruses are foreseen.
The committee will be chaired by Simon Hemmes, and the goals of the new initiative will be the following:

  • recommendations for the laundries, their customers and staff
  • maximise hygiene awareness
  • approve laundry protocols
  • monitor epidemiologic outbreaks
  • advise in case of a new outbreak

 

 

CINET International Hygiene Reference (RTC)

For a long period of time, the retail textile care industry was focussing on stain and spot removal and a high level of garment finishing quality. However, the global corona-crisis led to an increasing demand from customers for hygienically clean and corona-free garments and textile products

CINET has set up a Hygiene Reference Guide which is aimed to enable professional textile cleaners to answer questions about and to inform the cleaner how to deliver hygienically clean textiles  in a safe working environment, in line with internationally accepted reference values.

 

What is hygienical clean?

Hygienic clean is that no or only a limited number of bacteria (most guidelines focus on bacteria) are present on the garments and laundry after cleaning. These guidelines vary from country to country. The guidelines describe the maximum number of bacteria (expressed in c.f.u.) allowed per surface area of the product after cleaning. So, hygienically clean is not the same as sterile (= no bacteria)!

 

CERCLEAN® / Certex® Certified = better equipped for Corona and the future

Consumers and companies are becoming more critical when it comes to hygiene standards and guarantees, contamination risks for consumers, end-user and employees. The certified companies will therefore have a significant competitive advantage. CERCLEAN® / Certex® International Certification can help your business to gain more trustworthiness an professionalism.
More on CERCLEAN® / Certex® International Certification, its benefits and quotations – on this link (here)