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Mineral salt soil

The soil that alkaline cleaners cannot touch. It needs acid, which is why the strongest degreaser in the cupboard does nothing to it.

In detail

Mineral salt soil is the inorganic residue left when hard water, or a mineral-bearing product, dries on a surface. The dairy guideline places it in its own class for a specific reason: it is removed by ACID solutions, where protein needs alkali and fat needs surfactant. That single fact explains a very common domestic frustration. A kettle, a shower screen or a dishwasher interior treated with an ever-stronger alkaline cleaner will not improve, because the chemistry is wrong rather than weak. The same surface treated with a mild acid clears in minutes. It also explains why cleaning regimes in industry alternate: an alkaline wash for organic soil and a periodic acid wash for the mineral film underneath it. Neither removes the other's soil, and a surface cleaned with only one of them accumulates the other indefinitely.

What works

Why

Sources for this page

Sources

  1. Dairy Processing Plants: Guidelines for the Cleaning of Dairy Plant Processing Equipment

    British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), Canada · Government or regulator

    Relied on for: That Table 3 classifies milk soil into lactose removed by water, fat removed by surface active solutions, protein removed by alkaline solutions and mineral salts removed by acid solutions, and that every one of the four becomes more difficult to clean after heating. (states this directly)

    Verification: a person has read the passage relied on.

    Read on — Part II: 'Cleaning Steps' (Table 1), 'Factors Affecting Cleaning', 'Soil Characteristics' (Table 3) and 'Water Impurities' (Table 4). Supports the claim as stated. Supplies a soil classification by removal chemistry, the first numeric water-impurity thresholds in the register, and a professional cleaning protocol with a temperature for every step.

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