scope:

These sanitary standards cover the material requirements of plastics for multiple-use as product contact and/or cleaning solution contact surfaces in equipment for production, processing, and handling of milk and milk product(s). Test criteria are provided for plastics as a means of determining their acceptance as to their ability to be cleaned and to receive effective bactericidal treatment and to maintain their essential functional properties and surface finish in accelerated use-simulating tests¹. These standards do not apply to plastics for single service application nor plastics which are of rubber or rubber-like origin resulting from chemical or thermal vulcanization or curing. These standards are also not meant to cover design and fabrication criteria for individual plastic components, because such criteria are provided for in other 3-A Sanitary Standards and 3-A Accepted Practices.

In order to conform to these 3-A Sanitary Standards, multiple-use plastics shall comply with the following material, fabrication of test specimens as described in Section D3 herein, and cleanability standards.²

¹ Procedures in Sections F and G are not normal cleaning and bactericidal treatment tests but are accelerated use-simulating tests.

² Use current revisions or editions of all referenced documents cited herein.