Do I Need To Sanitize Bottles Pre-Bottling?

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BayBoy

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Hi!

I make an aftershave splash that I bottle in 4oz Boston Round glass bottles. They arrive optically spotless from the manufacturer. Do I need to sanitize them prior to bottling? I've used no-rinse sanitizers like Starsan efore for beer making. But I don't drink aftershave.... Plus my solution is %60 alcohol so I don't think bacteria could ever thrive under those conditions.

Would appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks!
 
I just looked up Starsan and a cursory glance seems to indicate that it actually helps the growth of yeast ("don't fear the foam").If so, you don't want that as a bottle sanitizer.

I don't know that alcohol kills virus, mold, mildew or yeast, let alone bacteria in spore form. Myself, I use a bleach solution despite having been told that the bottle don't need anything except a heavy spritz of rubbing alcohol.
I really have no definitive information for you, sorry.
 
I use a 70% rubbing alcohol spray to sanitize all of my things. I know a couple here use StarSan also.
Whether or not it's necessary for a product containing so much alcohol...I'm not sure. I always err on the side of caution though. It couldn't hurt.
 
I too use alcohol to spritz my jars and bottles. I've also read that bottles/jars from suppliers if kept in the bags they come in should be fine without anything. I've also read that washing bottles/jars can contaminate them more than just using. So, it's totally up to you. If your splash contains a large amount of alcohol I wouldn't do anything.
 
When using isopropanol (rubbing alcohol) for sanitizing, 70% is the better choice than the higher %, because the 70% does not evaporate as quickly, thus the alcohol remains in contact on the surface longer, giving it more time to work.

It denatures proteins, which is the aim with bacteria, fungi & viruses. But as lenarenee mentions, spores are better protected by their outer coating, so it may not penetrate.

When I taught CPR, we soaked all re-usable parts that came into contact with people (mouth-pieces, etc.) in a 10% bleach solution for 10 minutes per the CDC guidelines in place at that time, so lenarenee's use of bleach makes perfect sense. But so does alcohol on un-used brand new bottles for cosmetics. I also like the idea of sanitizing wand SunRiseArts uses, but haven't read up on that method.

In the US, the FDA has these guidelines in place, as well as this, but they are certainly vague on the topic of container sensitization. I suspect there are more explicit regulations in California and Florida, as well as in the EU, but I really don't know.

For further information, here is what the CDC (Centers for Disease Control in the US) recommends for in-home disinfection of re-usable medical-related items:

11.b. When performing care in the home, clean and disinfect reusable objects that touch mucous membranes (e.g., tracheostomy tubes) by immersing these objects in a 1:50 dilution of 5.25%-6.15% sodium hypochlorite (household bleach) (3 minutes), 70% isopropyl alcohol (5 minutes), or 3% hydrogen peroxide (30 minutes) because the home environment is, in most instances, safer than either hospital or ambulatory care settings because person-to-person transmission is less likely.

Granted that last one is a quoted from their guidelines for Healthcare, which is more strict than the US for cosmetics. https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/pdf/guidelines/disinfection-guidelines.pdf
 
Unless you're re-using containers, there's no need to sanitize before bottling up. In 13 years I've rarely felt the need to do that and have had no problem. I was taught early on that the containers are ready to fill when they arrive from the manufacturer. :thumbs:
 
Unless you're re-using containers, there's no need to sanitize before bottling up. In 13 years I've rarely felt the need to do that and have had no problem. I was taught early on that the containers are ready to fill when they arrive from the manufacturer. :thumbs:

Yeah I've read that same thing a lot. And that's how I did it for a long time. Then I found a body butter (no water) in a tin that grew some colorful mold after about 4 months. I'm sure it was on my fingers or came from the air, but after that I made much smaller batches or body butter and threw out anything I didn't finished in 2 months or so.

I'm going to include this link because I THINK it had the information about bottles and alcohol in it, but I'm not sure. I'm sorry I'm not taking the time to find it for y'all, but I've got to get to bed.
 

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