Food processing cleaning is a food-safety function: hygiene clean-downs built on HACCP principles, the BICSc green colour code reserved strictly for food areas, rigorous allergen control, and high-care/high-risk zone segregation. It is verified, not just visual. OptusGlean provides COSHH-trained, green-coded teams working to your shutdown windows on one fixed monthly contract.
What does food processing hygiene cleaning involve?
The work covers production-line surroundings, floors, walls and drainage, stainless-steel surfaces and equipment exteriors, high-care and high-risk zones, chilled and ambient stores, and staff welfare and changing areas. Cleaning is a defined clean-down between production runs or during shutdown windows, targeting microbiological and allergen risk - not just visible soiling.
How does HACCP shape the cleaning regime?
Food-safety management is built on HACCP - identifying hazards at each step, applying controls, setting limits, monitoring and correcting. Cleaning is a prerequisite programme underpinning it. We work to your documented clean-down schedules, support ATP/swab verification regimes, and keep records - the same risk-based logic that BS EN 14065 applies to healthcare laundry (identify hazards, control, monitor, correct).
Why is green colour-coding and allergen control critical?
The BICSc GREEN colour code is reserved exclusively for kitchens and food-preparation areas, so food-zone cloths, mops and equipment never touch washroom (red), general (blue) or clinical (yellow) areas. This segregation is central to preventing both microbiological cross-contamination and allergen carry-over between lines - a food-safety and legal necessity.
High-care zones, COSHH chemicals and shutdown windows
High-care and high-risk zones demand stricter controls, dedicated equipment and trained operatives. Cleaning chemicals - often strong sanitisers and degreasers - are managed under COSHH with proper PPE, storage and ventilation (HSE). We schedule intensive clean-downs into your production shutdown windows to minimise downtime. Every OptusGlean operative is directly employed on PAYE and vetted before their first shift. We DBS-check operatives in England and Wales, and apply the equivalent PVG (Disclosure Scotland) and AccessNI checks in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Where a site involves regulated activity with children or vulnerable adults, an Enhanced DBS (currently £49.50, gov.uk) is used. We never sub-contract to unvetted labour.
Fixed monthly pricing for food manufacturers
OptusGlean prices every contract as a single fixed monthly fee paid by Direct Debit - never an hourly rate that drifts. The fee is built from the specification agreed at your free site survey, and it already accounts for the wage floor (National Living Wage £12.71/hr from April 2026, or the real Living Wage of £13.45 UK / £14.80 London where a contract requires it), employer’s NI, holiday pay, supervision, consumables, insurance and management. VAT is added at the standard 20%. Multi-site food businesses get one nationwide agreement with a consistent, auditable hygiene standard across every facility.