Alkaline disinfectant and/or sanitizer solutions, are known. Effective alkaline disinfectant and/or sanitizer solutions may be especially useful in food handling and processing such as in grocery, dairy, restaurant and food service applications, where surfaces (e.g., equipment) may be vulnerable to problems with biofilm formation due to the prevalence of microbial food sources. The 2-part alkaline disinfectant and/or sanitizer solutions are especially useful on food contact surfaces in food and dairy processing.
In some instances, it is useful to activate a disinfectant/sanitizer cleaner solution via addition of an activator solution to produce an activated (i.e. “in-use”) disinfectant and/or sanitizer solution at or near a substrate to be treated. By combining a disinfectant/sanitizer cleaner solution with an activator solution at or near the substrate to be treated, efficacy of the resulting activated disinfectant and/or sanitizer solution may be increased, for example by keeping incompatible compounds separate until time of use. An example of one such “2-part system,” is a system comprising Ultra Disinfectant Cleaner Solution 1 and Ultra Activator Solution, each from Sterilex® (Hunt Valley, Md.). In use, Sterilex® Ultra Disinfectant Cleaner Solution 1 and Sterilex® Ultra Activator Solution may be mixed together in equal volumes and diluted with water to create an alkaline in-use disinfectant and/or sanitizer solution. The alkaline in-use disinfectant and/or sanitizer solution may be applied to a substrate to be treated using any suitable method including, but not limited to, being applied as a foam or spray, used as soaking solution and/or circulated through or around a substrate.
One industrial area in which 2-part systems may be particularly useful, is to treat heat exchanger coils which can be found in spiral freezers and other freezing/chilling equipment used for processing frozen foods. Additional industrial areas in which 2-part systems may be particularly useful include overhead air handling units, cooling tunnels, aluminum paneling and walls. However, these and other substrates may comprise components that may be vulnerable to corrosive effects of compounds commonly found in alkaline in-use disinfectant and/or sanitizer solutions. For example, aluminum, which is a soft metal, is commonly used as a component of coils in spiral freezers and other equipment. However, aluminum is prone to rapid corrosion upon contact with alkaline substances.
While various 2-part alkaline disinfectant and/or sanitizer solutions have been made and used, it is believed that no one prior to the inventor(s) has made or used the invention described in the appended claims, which reduce or eliminate the corrosive effects of alkaline disinfectant and/or sanitizer solutions.