Having been food service certified in both Nassau and Suffolk DOH I confirm that both will allow a diluted bleach solution to clean and sanitize food prep surfaces. I assume we took the same classes and dealt with the same inspectors. I do think the no rinse products have become the option of choice but never had an inspector question diluted bleach.
yes, we clearly had different experiences. no facility out here (sf bay area, 3 counties) ever got the ok to use bleach on any food contact surface. that's local inspectors, who do bars/restaurants/delis/markets/etc as well as the two state inspectors i dealt with who handled production facilities (both were breweries). the other facilities i mentioned (sausage and tortilla factories) are not places i worked but did some small consulting-type gigs for and they used food service sanitizers. and i couldnt tell you that it came from a health inspector, but our place in baja also uses a sanitizer product and not just regular bleach. (for whatever that's worth)
at the end of the day, its just debating around the actual issue of contention here. the chemist guy says vinegar makes the bleach solution more effective as sanitizer. that's what i referred to, that's what started this whole debate. despite all the arguing back and forth, no one has disproved it. nor has anyone stated it was not food safe, or that is wasn't a "no rinse" sanitizer.
last time i'll say it, i'm not a chemist. couldnt debate the science of why vinegar makes it better other than just repeating what the guy said (pH change makes it more effective).
unless someone claims/proves otherwise, this combo (bleach+vinegar) is presented as the most effective, food safe, no-rinse, "off the shelf" sanitizer available to the OP.
he refuted your claim that bleach is not a very good sanitizer. you turned that into a straw man claiming that he said bleach + vinegar is not a more effective sanitizer. he didn't say that. you said he said that.
PS. He's a Bruins fan, it's killing me to back him up.
ah, ok. you got me. what i should have said (and what i honestly was implying) was that bleach as not "as good" a sanitizer as the vinegar+bleach combo. i stated that a few times talking about the combo/pH change/etc, which i thought made it clear what point i was making, but yes, in terms of technicalities, i should have said not as good as opposed to not good.