Astral Hygiene Blog | Commercial Cleaning & Hygiene Advice UK

  The Complete Guide to Commercial Washroom Hygiene for UK Businesses  29th June 2026 | By Yewan Armstrong Maintaining exceptional washroom hygiene is essential for every commercial environment, from offices and schools to hotels, restaurants, healthcare facilities and industrial workplaces. Clean, well-stocked washrooms not only help reduce the spread of bacteria and viruses but also create a positive first impression for employees, customers and visitors. Choosing the right commercial washroom supplies—including toilet rolls, paper hand towels, hand soap, soap dispensers, sanitary waste bins, air fresheners and professional cleaning chemicals—can improve hygiene standards, increase efficiency and reduce ongoing maintenance costs. Whether you're responsible for a single office or multiple sites, investing in quality washroom products helps ensure your facilities remain clean, compliant and welcoming. In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore the essential washroom hygiene pr...

  Care Home Case Study – Uric Acid and Odour Control  21st March 2025  | By Anna Armstrong   |  Cleaning Tips ,  Environmental Health ,  Hygiene Following on from last weeks case study, I thought this week I’d expand and discuss the best way and the appropriate products to help to control the odours associated with incontinence. The urine odour that is associated with urinary incontinence is caused by the water products from the kidneys, including ammonia, urea and other compounds. These water products are encased by protein, which is made up of amino acids – amino acids are inherently sticky, so they stick to any surface that isn’t completely smooth. This characteristic means that uric acid sticks in between tiles, to grout and to the fibres that make up mattresses. The thing about uric acid, the smell comes from the break down of urea into ammonia. In dementia patients dehydration is an important factor, as many patients forget to drink and become de...

  How to set up your Hygiene when running or opening an abattoir…  28th February 2025  | By Anna Armstrong   |  Cleaning Tips ,  Environmental Health ,  Hygiene I was recently engaged to set up the cleaning & hygiene practices in a newly established abattoir. This was a newly built project, and the client had engaged a health and safety team, and a consultancy to design the building, ensuring sinks etc were all in place. At the final stages when the build was almost complete, I was engaged to ensure that all cleaning and hygiene practices met the standards that were required by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) who are responsible for inspection of the hygiene standards but also the inspection of the environmental impact of an abattoir. I arrived on site, to do a site audit, and take the brief in terms of what meats they would be processing, to find that we were starting from the ground up, there were no chemicals onsite and we had a single qualified...

  Environmental Health Assessment: Fish Processing Plant case study  7th March 2025 I was recently engaged by a start up firm who had plans to begin processing a specific type of fish and then selling it on their website. This fish was line caught, so sustainably caught and the client wanted to process this fish in new premises. The client had no previous experience with processing raw foods, so needed comprehensive guidance prior to a scheduled environmental health assessment to allow him to open and begin trading. After finding out about his vision and what he wanted to achieve from our meeting, I firstly began with the PPE requirements needed on site to ensure that contaminants from outside weren’t being brought in to the factory. I provided  mob caps  which are food safe and comfortable to wear,  overshoes  were also delivered, as shoe protection.  Waterproof aprons  completed the ensemble. Finally, we provided nitrile gloves as hand protectio...

  Unmasking the True Cost of the Cleaning and Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Industries  30th July 2024  | By Yewan Armstrong It costs the NHS £387 million to treat patients with lung cancer each year. There is a clear link between lung cancer and smoking, however, a little-known and understood contributor to this disease is also lurking in household cleaning products. These products, which churn out harmful toxins (VOCs) into the air, are causing breathing problems, skin irritation and lung damage, putting strain on our already underfunded healthcare system.    This is an example of understanding the True Cost behind not only the products we procure and sell but also the ongoing costs of repairing the damage they are causing to our health, our community, and the environment.    In 2019 The World Bank stated that by 2030, we would need to spend $90 trillion globally to fix the environmental damage we have so far accrued. To put that into perspective this i...

  Why is BSEN 1276 not a fit for purpose accredditation for sanitising my dishes?  12th January 2024  | By Anna Armstrong   |  Cleaning Tips ,  Environmental Health ,  Hygiene ,  Sustainability ,  Coronovirus The Food Standards Agency has published a guidance documents for all food handlers to prevent the risk of cross-contamination of E-Coli. As Astral Hygiene are so well versed in food hygiene regulations we can now offer advice and support regarding the safe and most effective use of our products including Cleaner Sanitiser (BSEN 1276) for use on Hard Surfaces, and Bactericidal Detergent (BSEN 1040) for use in water to ensure safe food preparation. What exactly is BS EN 1276? BS EN 1276 is a European Standard which ensures that the bactericidal activity of chemical disinfectants are effective against controlling harmful micro-organisms. All   BS EN 1276   chemicals have been tested to ensure they are killing 99.999% of bacteria w...