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▸ GOOD CHEMISTRY · WE MEAN BOTH KINDS
▸ TELEIOS / SAFETY & CORROSION
▸ANTIMICROBIAL PROGRAM FOR POULTRY PROCESSORS

Same Salmonella
kill.
Without the odor and the acid .

Worker safety concerns and equipment corrosion are not side effects of one bad product — they're properties of the chemistries the industry has been using to kill pathogens for years. This page walks through why those problems exist, what makes them hard to manage, and where T-24, a Clean Chemistry Technology, fits at your dip tanks and sprays.

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▸THE WORKER SAFETY SIDE

Why intervention chemistries are
hard on people.

Every antimicrobial in poultry processing shares the same property: it kills pathogens by being chemically aggressive. Acidic, oxidizing, reactive — that's how the chemistry does the job. The same aggressiveness is what makes the chemistry challenging for the people working around it. That isn't a flaw of any one product. It's a property of the category.

02·A SUBSECTION · WHAT MAKES PAA HARD TO LIVE WITH

Peracetic acid is the most widely used antimicrobial in U.S. poultry processing.

It's an equilibrium mixture of peracetic acid, hydrogen peroxide, and acetic acid, and at concentrate it sits well below pH 1.

NIOSH characterizes PAA as a strong sensory irritant — more potent than acetic acid or hydrogen peroxide alone. Acute exposure can irritate the eyes, the respiratory tract, and the skin [CDC NIOSH]. Published research has linked PAA exposure to upper and lower respiratory tract symptoms in workers, and in some cases to occupational asthma.

▸ PAA · AT A GLANCE
CONCENTRATE pH < 1
CATEGORY ACID · OXIDIZER
NIOSH STRONG SENSORY IRRITANT
REGULATED BY USDA FSIS · 7120.1
MOST WIDELY USED IN U.S. POULTRY
▸ WHAT'S REGULATED

Application points and concentration ranges.

PAA isn't governed by OSHA in the way the chemical safety blogs sometimes suggest — OSHA has not set a Permissible Exposure Limit for it. PAA is governed by USDA FSIS through FSIS Directive 7120.1, which lists where PAA is approved — on-line and off-line reprocessing, pre-chill and post-chill dips and sprays, immersion chilling, broiler parts treatment — and the concentration ranges that go with each one.

▸ WHAT ISN'T

Worker experience on the floor.

Application is regulated. Worker experience on the floor is not. That part lands on the plant — and it shows up in the complaint log, the retention numbers, and the tour feedback before it shows up anywhere a regulator can see.

▸ 02·B · WHY THE SMELL SHAPES THE PROGRAM

The fumes are the only reason they can't turn it up.

Most QA teams already know which application points need a higher concentration than the program is running today.

The chemistry that's working harder is also harder to stand near, and that ends up shaping the program more than the data does. The same dosing setting can also produce a different odor experience from one shift to the next, because PAA half-life and apparent concentration move with pH, temperature, total dissolved solids, fats, oils, proteins, sampling timing, and measurement method [Unplucked podcast].

▸ What that means in practice
i.

CONCENTRATION CEILING

Gets set by the people on the line, not by the data — at every application point that runs hot.

ii.

COMPLAINT LOGS

Worker safety, HR, and the poultry nurse log irritation and odor complaints across shifts.

iii.

MAINTENANCE & ENG.

Pick up the conversation when a part has to come out near an application point.

iv.

CANDIDATE TOURS

Walks past the rehang area or the post-chill spray. Doesn't call back.

None of that needs a regulatory citation to be real. It shows up in the complaint log, the retention numbers, and the tour feedback.

02·C SUBSECTION · THE OTHER INTERVENTION CHEMISTRIES

Every chemistry in the category brings something of its own.

The worker-safety conversation isn't unique to PAA. The point isn't that one chemistry is "safe" and another isn't — the point is that the worker-safety story behind your intervention program is real and ongoing, and it gets shaped by which chemistry you've chosen, how high you can run it, and how the people on the line experience it day to day.

01 OXIDIZER

CHLORINE DIOXIDE

A strong oxidizer used in some food and water applications. Generated on-site and used in solution — gas-phase off-gassing and acid handling at the point of generation are the central safety concerns.

02 ACID + OXIDIZER

ACIDIFIED SODIUM CHLORITE

Activated with a GRAS organic acid (often citric) at the point of use, generating chlorous acid and chlorine dioxide. Brings both an acid-handling concern and an oxidizer concern.

03 OXIDIZER

CHLORINE

The poultry chiller workhorse before PAA replaced it in many plants. Lower-cost, with vapor concerns of its own and the chemistry of byproducts in organic-loaded water.

04 OXIDIZER

BROMINE COMPOUNDS

Used in some processing applications. Irritants, particularly to eyes and respiratory tract.

05 LOWER PROFILE

CPC + ORGANIC ACID

Generally lower in acute irritation profile, less common in high-volume poultry kill applications. Their own handling and labeling work.

▸ WHO LIVES WITH THIS, AND WHERE IT LANDS

This is the conversation worker safety has with HR, with the poultry nurse, with the OSHA inspector, and with the candidate who toured the plant last week and didn't call back.

It's the conversation QA has when residuals need to go up at a specific application point and the line crew pushes back. It's the conversation a plant manager has when complaints about the air on the line stop being one-offs and start being a pattern.

▸ That's the worker-safety side. Section 03 turns to corrosion.

03 ▸THE CORROSION SIDE

Why intervention chemistries are
hard on equipment.

Most intervention chemistries are either acidic, strongly oxidizing, or both. Both chemistries attack metal over time. That's the corrosion story underneath every antimicrobial program — and it's the part of the program that almost never gets coded back to the chemistry that started it.

03·A SUBSECTION

The chemistry of corrosion, in plain terms.

Three things to keep separate, because they wear equipment in different ways.

01

Acidic chemistries

▸ Protons attack the metal.

Acid attacks metal directly by donating protons that react with the metal surface. The lower the pH, the more aggressive the reaction. Concentrated PAA sits well below pH 1; at use it's still acidic. Acidified sodium chlorite, organic acid blends, and any sulfuric-acid-buffered system live in the same acidic range. That low pH is what wears stainless steel around dip tanks and spray cabinets, eats fasteners and brackets faster than spec, and feeds the cracks in the concrete underneath.

02

Oxidizing chemistries

▸ Electrons stripped off the surface.

Oxidizers attack metal differently. They pull electrons away from the metal surface, accelerating the oxidation reactions that already happen at slower rates in air and water. Chlorine, chlorine dioxide, bromine, hydrogen peroxide, and PAA all do this. The stainless steel that's rated for normal plant water doesn't stay on that wear curve when there's a steady oxidizer load on it every shift.

03

PAA does both at once

▸ Acidic and oxidizing.

That's why corrosion shows up faster at and around PAA application points than other parts of the plant. Two wear mechanisms on the same equipment, every shift, for as long as the program is running. The maintenance log doesn't separate them — it just shows the parts coming out faster than spec.

03·B SUBSECTION

What the corrosion looks like at the application points.

A baseline walk usually finds the same things.

  • ▸ METAL · DIP & SPRAY Metal directly around dip tanks and spray cabinets wearing faster than the engineering spec said it would.
  • ▸ FASTENERS · BRACKETS Fasteners and brackets in the spray zone that aren't lasting their rated life.
  • ▸ CONCRETE Concrete cracks that open faster around application points than elsewhere in the plant.
  • ▸ DRAIN LINES Drain lines and floor drains showing wear from continuous acid load.
  • ▸ CONVEYORS Adjacent conveyor parts that catch over-spray showing surface attack.

The corrosion is rarely a single dramatic failure. It's a faster wear curve on everything in the chemistry's footprint.

03·C SUBSECTION

Where the cost actually shows up.

Corrosion is an accounting problem as much as a chemistry problem. None of these line items get coded back to the intervention chemistry — they get coded to maintenance, operations, and capital.

A MAINTENANCE

Pays first. Labor, parts, an unscheduled repair on a shift that didn't plan for it.

B OPERATIONS

Pays through downtime when a part has to come out faster than spec.

C QA

Pays through uncertainty when sanitation confidence drops around worn equipment.

D LEADERSHIP

Pays through capital drag when a replacement shows up on the budget six months sooner than planned.

Which means the total cost of an antimicrobial program rarely shows up in one number — and the chemistry decision rarely gets reviewed at the level of its actual impact.

The two trade-offs nobody puts on the chemistry invoice are equipment corrosion and concrete corrosion.

They're real, they're ongoing, and they're a property of how the category of chemistry works.

04 ▸THE ANSWER, AT THE DIP TANK

Where T-24 fits.

T-24, a Clean Chemistry Technology, is a patented sodium peracetate antimicrobial generated fresh inside your plant from three GRAS feedstock ingredients. It replaces traditional PAA at dip tanks and sprays. Three things about its chemistry change the safety and corrosion conversation directly.

01 ▸ ODOR

It's virtually odorless at use.

In testing, personnel could not pick up T-24 at the application points already running it. We back that with a written 100% no-odor guarantee — the only guarantee Teleios makes.

What that means on the line: the smell ceiling stops shaping the program. QA can set concentration on the data, at every application point T-24 covers — not just the ones people can stand near.

~0
▸ ODOR · GUARANTEED
02 ▸ PH

It's alkaline, not acidic.

At use, T-24 sits in the pH 9 to 12 range. That's the opposite end of the scale from acidic PAA. It does not load the equipment around it with acid every shift. It does not feed concrete cracks the way an acidic chemistry does. And it does not drive the acid-related product damage acidic chemistry can — the wing-tip burns, the nugget striping, the surface discoloration QA traces back to chemistry.

To be clear: T-24 is still an oxidant. Every antimicrobial in this category is. We are not claiming T-24 stops corrosion. What we are claiming is that an alkaline chemistry runs at a different starting point than an acidic one, and that difference is real where you can measure it.

9 – 12
▸ PH AT USE · OPPOSITE OF PAA
03 ▸ KILL

The pathogen kill matches PAA.

Independent laboratory testing puts T-24's Salmonella kill on par with traditional PAA. The most cited figure is a 2.01 log₁₀ reduction in extended-contact immersion testing.

The plant doesn't step back from antimicrobial performance to get the safety and corrosion change.

2.01 log₁₀
▸ SALMONELLA REDUCTION · IMMERSION
▸ A FEW OTHER PROPERTIES WORTH KNOWING
▸ GENERATED ON-SITE
No dangerous acids stored on site.

Fresh, every day. No drums. No HAZMAT delivery. No degradation on a shelf.

▸ WASTEWATER
~40% lower BOD on a composition basis.

No residual acetic acid in the wastewater. That's the chemistry, not a claim about how much product gets used.

▸ USDA FSIS · FCN 2352
Approved for poultry, meat, and egg.

Private-labeled for Teleios by Clean Chemistry, Inc. Approved under FCN 2352.

05 ▸THE SYSTEM BEHIND THE CHEMISTRY

A chemistry needs a system around it.

A chemistry that lowers the odor and slows the acidic side of corrosion still needs a system around it. That's Blue Ribbon Service — a published rhythm that gives safety, maintenance, QA, and the GM the same picture of what's actually happening on the floor.

WEEK 0
Baseline plant walk A baseline plant walk, point by point, before anything changes. Maintenance and worker safety in the room.
~3 hrs · scorecard delivered by Friday
WEEK 1
Installation & operator training Install and operator training, with your existing sanitation program left alone. No catalog. No upsell.
On-site · existing sanitation untouched
EVERY WEEK
Weekly check-ins A real conversation, not an auto-emailed report. Same person, same plant, same phone number.
30 min · same Teleios rep · every week
EVERY 90D
Regular scorecards A scorecard, written down, that your team can hand to corporate. Delivered 2x per month.
PDF · QA + Maintenance + GM

Service is what keeps the chemistry doing what it's supposed to do — and what lets safety, maintenance, QA, and the GM see what's actually happening on the floor instead of guessing at it.

06 ▸WHO CARRIES THE COST

Who lives with this every shift.

Odor and corrosion don't land on one desk. Here's where the safety and corrosion story actually shows up for each person on your team — and what changes with T-24.

01

QA Manager

▸ THE WORRY

Product appearance — nugget striping, wing-tip burns, surface discoloration, the defects that come back as customer complaints or held lots — plus residual validation and audit defensibility.

▸ WITH T-24

Alkaline chemistry doesn't drive the acid-induced product damage that traditional PAA can. Concentration is set on the data instead of the smell ceiling.

02

Food Safety Manager

▸ THE WORRY

Microbial control across intervention points, FSIS readiness, Category status, HACCP defensibility.

▸ WITH T-24

Same kill, applied at the points T-24 covers, with a system that monitors and documents what was actually run.

03

Worker Safety Manager

▸ THE WORRY

Odor complaints, exposure incidents, OSHA inspection exposure, candidate experience.

▸ WITH T-24

An odorless chemistry at the application points T-24 replaces. Fewer of the conversations that pull this role into a defensive crouch.

04

Maintenance Manager

▸ THE WORRY

Corrosion at and around the application points, parts replacement cycles, downtime tied to chemistry.

▸ WITH T-24

Alkaline chemistry instead of acidic chemistry on the equipment T-24 touches. The acidic side of the wear curve changes.

05

Plant Manager · GM

▸ THE WORRY

Throughput, retention, customer complaints (including product appearance), the costs that move quietly across departments.

▸ WITH T-24

The hidden plant cost of the intervention chemistry — odor, corrosion, product defects, complaints — gets pulled out into the open and lowered where T-24 runs.

06

Complex Manager

▸ THE WORRY

Multi-site consistency, wastewater, sustainability commitments, contracts that hold up across plants.

▸ WITH T-24

A program that brings the same chemistry, the same data, and the same service routine to every plant you run it in.

Odor and corrosion touch every seat at this table. So does the chemistry you choose to fix them.

07 ▸THE BASELINE WALK

The fastest way to know is to walk it.

Pick a day and let us walk your plant. Pull in your team and ask these six questions. Those six answers are the baseline — what a T-24 plant trial gets measured against. Not lab numbers. Your numbers.

01

Where is the smell strongest?

02

How often does worker safety hear an odor or irritation complaint that traces back to the intervention chemistry?

03

Where is the corrosion worst?

04

What does maintenance replace more often than the engineering spec said they would?

05

What capital have you spent in the last three years on parts and concrete in the chemistry's footprint?

06

When something went wrong with chemistry last quarter, how long did it take to reach a live person at your supplier?

▸ AFTER THE WALK

Build your plant baseline.

We'll sit with maintenance, worker safety, and QA, walk the application points, and write the baseline down. No catalog. No promises.

Book the Baseline Walk →
08 ▸THE THINGS THAT COME UP MOST

Six questions we hear from QA, safety,
and the plant manager.

Short answers. Sourced where claims need sourcing. If you want a longer conversation, the page ends with a way to start one.

Is PAA safe to use in poultry processing? +
PAA is widely used in poultry processing under USDA FSIS oversight as an approved antimicrobial processing aid. It can be effective. It also requires proper handling, monitoring, ventilation, training, and PPE because acute exposure can irritate the eyes, the respiratory tract, and the skin [CDC NIOSH].
How is PAA actually regulated in a poultry plant? +
The use of PAA in poultry processing is governed by USDA FSIS through FSIS Directive 7120.1. The directive lists where PAA is approved — on-line and off-line reprocessing, pre-chill and post-chill dips and sprays, immersion chilling, broiler parts treatment — and the concentration ranges that go with each application. Application is regulated. Worker experience on the floor is a separate, plant-level conversation.
Why does PAA odor and exposure vary so much from one shift to the next? +
PAA half-life and apparent concentration move with pH, temperature, total dissolved solids, fats, oils, proteins, sampling timing, and measurement method. That means the same dosing setting can produce different residuals — and a different odor experience — across shifts and product mixes [Unplucked podcast]. The chemistry is doing the moving.
Why does the chemistry corrode the equipment around the application points? +
Most intervention chemistries are either acidic, strongly oxidizing, or both. Acidic chemistries attack metal directly through proton-driven reactions. Oxidizing chemistries pull electrons from the metal surface, accelerating wear that already happens slowly in air and water. PAA does both at once, which is why corrosion tends to show up faster at and around PAA application points than other parts of the plant.
How can a poultry plant reduce odor and irritation concerns today? +
Most plants combine ventilation, distance from application points, monitoring, training, and standing-water control. Switching the chemistry at dip tanks and sprays to an odorless, alkaline antimicrobial like T-24 is a separate option that addresses the source rather than the controls around it.
How does corrosion affect the total cost of an antimicrobial program? +
Equipment corrosion shows up under maintenance, parts, downtime, and capital — but it usually started under intervention chemistry. The cleanest way to size the cost at your own plant is to walk the application points with maintenance, pull the three-year capital and parts spend in the chemistry's footprint, and write down what is wearing faster than spec.

▸ ALL CLAIMS ON THIS PAGE WITH AN EFFICACY, REGULATORY, OR HEALTH IMPLICATION CARRY A SOURCE OR ARE FLAGGED PENDING TECHNICAL REVIEW.

▸START HERE

Come see what changes.

The clearest way to evaluate this is to stand on a working line — yours, or one of ours. Pick the spot on your plant where you'd most like to turn PAA up and can't. Walk that spot with us. Then try to smell T-24 at the application points already running it.

Walk Your Line With Us → Book a Short Call →