19 minutes ago, paulraphael said:Disinfectants and sanitizers are not quite the same thing. I use a peroxide-based disinfectant at home and love it; it's pretty non-toxic, it works well, and it smells good. There's no nasty residue. It's sold as a commercial product for hospitals, so it's not so easy to find ... I'm not sure why.
Sanitizers are used in somewhat lower concentrations and in much larger quantities, and need to stay stable in an open sink for a whole shift. Peroxide is unstable even in a plastic bottle. In a sink it will off-gas to basically nothing very quickly. Peroxide is much more expensive than the usual suspects (quaternary ammonium, chlorine). For reasons I don't know, it hasn't been approved as a commercial restaurant sanitizer by health departments (at least not as of the last time I looked into it). It used to be a popular sanitizer for breweries. They used it in higher concentrations than household peroxide. Mostly for stainless steel and copper surfaces. From what I've read it's no longer popular; that industry has switched to stuff called PAA, which is a strong peroxide/acetic acid blend that is nastier than anything you'd want in your kitchen. It must be pretty effective for people to put up with it.
Thanks. The peroxide I buy is stronger than OTC, but for many applications, like rinsing produce, it's diluted to OTC strength.
IMO, its relative unpopularity is due to the fact that it degrades into harmlessness quite quicky in air and light. To me, this is a good thing, but I can see why restauranteurs and health inspectors might favor other agents.
I use a product called Proxycarb in the winery, which is an industry favorite.
Dumb and snarky as I am...
