Concept

Originally established a decade ago for launderers serving healthcare providers, laundry certification has now expanded to include facilities across various industries through TRSA’s independent Hygienically Clean program. In addition to certifications for healthcare and general services, specialty certifications are available for:

  • Food Safety (for food manufacturing and processing)
  • Food Service (restaurants, cafeterias, banquet facilities, etc.)
  • Hospitality (hotels and other lodging)

Certified launderers benefit from increased efficiency, better-trained staff, and heightened consumer confidence resulting from third-party verification. Implementing Best Practices is essential for achieving certification. With these practices in place, a laundry can effectively demonstrate cleanliness, ensuring that both the staff and the facility are ready for an audit.

Implementation

Develop a Quality Assurance Manual tailored specifically to your operation. Ensure it includes procedures for the following components in your service chain:

  • Textile pick-up and transportation to the laundry facility
  • Identification and separation of soiled linens and textiles
  • A variety of wash chemistries and agents to be utilized
  • A comprehensive list of facility equipment, along with schedules for maintenance and calibration
  • Personnel names and/or titles assigned to various tasks
  • Contingency plans for equipment or power failures, natural disasters, or plant disruptions
  • Sanitary storage and transport of products upon return to the client

Additionally, define implementation measures to ensure compliance with OSHA and other federal and local safety standards.

To serve healthcare and hospitality customers, it is essential to maintain clear separation between “soiled” and “clean” areas within your facility. This includes all means of conveyance—trucks, tubs, carts, conveyor belts, and bins. For other industries, while functional separation is not mandatory, it is still crucial to prevent cross-contamination.

Review and familiarize yourself with wash chemistry practices, particularly the formulas, as they are crucial to achieving favorable outcomes in microbial testing.

Ensure sanitary methods of transport, especially during the delivery of laundered products. Document hygienic compliance and training, clearly identifying responsible personnel.

Thoroughly review communication policies, including mitigation procedures for hazardous, environmental, or other unforeseen contingencies.

Ensure that processes and products effectively remove soil and mitigate microbial presence. Outline measures that emphasize safe chemical storage and hazard prevention.

Initiate the certification process and audit by budgeting for application fees and any additional onsite preparatory costs. A separate application must be submitted for each facility seeking certification. To qualify for a single filing fee per company, multiple plant applications should be submitted at the same time.

Prepare the facility and staff for an audit.

The implementation measures outlined above are fairly standard and relevant across various industries. However, no two facilities are exactly alike, and specific differences and demands may be unique to each enterprise. While it is essential to adhere to OSHA regulations, CDC guidelines, and universally accepted voluntary standards, local and state mandates can vary, so these area-specific policies must be clearly identified and addressed in your Quality Assurance Manual.

The requirements for outsourced laundering can also vary significantly. For example, Food Service (restaurants, institutions, catering) differs from Food Safety (animal processing, dairies, produce packaging, etc.). Additionally, petrochemical soils from uniforms and textiles in the Industrial/Manufacturing sectors present challenges and hazards that are completely different from the human pathogens found in linens and textiles used in healthcare facilities.

One thing remains clear: TRSA’s Hygienically Clean program, which includes third-party quantitative biological testing and certification, not only enhances health and safety but also elevates standards throughout the laundry industry. This leads to improved efficiency, better-trained personnel, and increased consumer and client confidence—all of which contribute to greater success in trade.

Practical Applications

While no U.S. government agency or regulatory board has established an “acceptable bacterial level” for textiles, Hygienically Clean adheres to the total microbial content standards for finished textile hygiene set 30 years ago by the Certification Association for Professional Textile Services, which are recognized globally. For healthcare and hospitality textiles, this standard is defined as 20 colony-forming units (CFU) or fewer per square decimeter, as measured by the RODAC plate test. Some bioindicators may be absent altogether, and in the United States, their absence is assessed using the USP 62 procedure.

Tunnel washers significantly enhance laundry productivity while conserving chemicals, heat, and especially water. However, extensive water reuse, combined with limited fresh water infusions, can lead to bacterial growth in tunnel reuse tanks. This issue was identified through textile testing for Hygienically Clean certification, prompting laundry technicians to adjust wash chemistry to resolve the problem. Notably, at least three facilities already accredited by the Healthcare Laundry Accreditation Council (HLAC) experienced similar issues.