Dry ice blasting is a mechanical soil-removal step, not a sanitizer. The CO₂ pellets are supplied with job-specific supplier documentation on request and sublimate to gas on impact, adding no process water and leaving no chemical residue of its own. Whether and how it fits your sanitation program is a determination your own QA team and sanitarian make — we don't claim compliance with USDA, FDA, SQF, BRCGS, GFSI, HACCP, or FSMA requirements.
Where it fits in the sanitation hierarchy
The standard sanitation hierarchy is dry pickup → mechanical pre-clean → chemical wash/rinse → sanitizer. Dry ice can supplement the mechanical pre-clean step. It removes physical contamination — baked-on product, carbonized sugar, allergen residue, biofilm precursor — that would otherwise require scraping, soaking, or chemical degreasing. Your normal chemical sanitation per SSOP still follows after it.
Allergen changeovers
Allergen changeovers traditionally require water washdown, rinse, dry-down, and a verification swab. Dry ice blasting can complete the mechanical removal portion without introducing water or a rinse-down to drain, which can shorten that step — but your QA team's swab and clearance protocol still governs when the line is released. We document each pass with surface, time, and photo for your sanitation log.
Listeria and dry zones
In dry processing environments — bakery, snack food, dry blending — water introduction is a primary Listeria risk vector. A no-water mechanical step is one option worth evaluating against your own dry-clean policy. CO₂ sublimates and displaces oxygen, so we run CO₂ monitors and ventilation in any enclosed work area.
Documentation
Every blast pass produces a record: surface cleaned, start/end time, operator, photo, and any anomalies. Records can be delivered as PDF or CSV to fit your sanitation document control system. This is a record for your own file, not a certification, and we don't represent it as satisfying any specific audit standard.
What we don't do
We don't sanitize or disinfect. We don't replace your chemistry. We don't substitute for your verification swabbing, and we don't determine whether the process fits your SSOP or HACCP plan — that stays with your QA team and sanitarian. We're a mechanical cleaning step, and that's where the value sits.