For those of us who started our career on the midnight shift in a dairy operation donning a rainsuit, rubber boots, goggles, a selection of chemicals, and a ready supply of water volume and pressure to aim at our objects, dry cleaning seems counterintuitive. Dry clean tools and methods must be learned; it is not the same as wet cleaning. In environments that were not originally designed for dry cleaning, the sanitation cycle may take longer until we can optimize.
Facility environments for the manufacture of infant formula, neutropenic or ready-to-eat foods can benefit greatly from hygienic design and practice that eliminates water from the environment. Keeping water out of the environment continuously enables environmental control of serious pathogenic organisms such as Salmonella and Cronobacter. If allowed to enter high-care environments, these organisms can survive without water for long periods of time.
Avoidance of water is an important method of control, as keeping a dry environment is a major deterrent to the outgrowth of the biofilms that these organisms occupy. Avoidance of water with aggressive chemicals also can be beneficial to the longevity of non-stainless plant fabric in processing and packaging environments.