Editor's Choice article for December 2025

Cleaning-in-place (CIP) remains an essential operation throughout dairy processing, ensuring product safety, equipment hygiene and regulatory compliance.However, traditional CIP protocols frequently rely on high-temperature caustic solutions that impose substantial energy demands and generate alkaline wastewater requiring neutralisation.As the dairy sector works towards reducing environmental impact and aligning with broader sustainability frameworks, there is increasing interest in alternative methods that maintain hygiene standards while lowering resource use.In this study, Pant et al. present an evaluation of proteasebased enzymatic CIP solutions as a potential substitute for conventional caustic cleaning.Using a controlled pilot-scale system that replicates turbulent industrial flow conditions, fouling was generated on stainless steel surfaces under