The difference between pure sodium hydroxide and detergent in professional cleaning

In olive-oil mills, in wine cellars, in dairy farms and other artisanal production sites, the cleaning of machines and worktables may affect the quality of the products, for many reasons from the possible contamination of oil or cheese if using detergents which contain long-term toxic and lyposoluble ingredients, to perfumes absorption contained in detergents, to inefficient cleaning in case of inadequate detergents.

With the aim to save money, some oil producers, for example, choose pure sodium hydroxide, just enough diluted, instead of detergents to remove greasy soil. Ecologically speaking, in the disposal sodium hydroxide does not cause any problem, as well as for long-term toxicity; if users pays very close attention to handle concentrated (generally 30% or 50%) caustic soda solution in the process of diluting, they can use it and it makes sense. In fact sodium hydroxide saponifies fats: oil molecules, insoluble in water, are converted in soap molecules (which show fatty properties at one end and watery properties at the other) so water can rinse them away. Nonetheless soap, as we wrote in this article talking about laundry castile soap, tecnically on its own cannot make a good quality cleaning: it cannot avoid soil redeposition on surfaces, actually it improves this process. So the result is a rough cleaning, with halos and not perfectly removed stains. Restaurant owners and personnel assigned to dishwashers know this issue very well: in order to get clean and shiny crockery and glasses, they must use detergents for dishwashers containing cnot only caustic soda, but also and above all other ingredients with specific cleaning and antiredeposing action.

Bensos’ products specific for this kind of professional cleaning (Strong Degreaser code SF and its enhanced version code MM) are studied just to compensate this “lack” of caustic soda: products are soda based, but they contain highly biodegradable sequestering agents and surfactants too, with the aim to remover better greasy soil and to avoid redeposition of soil. This goal is generally achieved by all specific detergents on the market; Bensos’ products are different as their environmental impact is cut to a level close to zero and do not contain any long-term toxic ingredient, as well as dyes, fragrances and allergens.