The cleaning phase is seldom included in the eco-design of food processes, since few cleaning kinetics models exist. The goal of this study was to investigate benefits of including a cleaning kinetics model, which considers three major operating parameters of cleaning (concentration, temperature and flow rate), in the eco-design of a food process. To this end, we developed an eco-design approach for a dairy evaporator process that includes both production and cleaning phases. A cleaning kinetics model was selected to predict cleaning duration as a function of the operating parameters of cleaning. Cleaning duration also depends on the fouling surface density, which depends on the duration of the production phase. Fouling surface density was predicted using three hypothetical fouling kinetics laws. After optimization, environmental and economic improvements were observed in process performance. The evaporation process is optimized at a high cleaning temperature (95°C), a flow-rate similar to that used during the production phase and a low caustic soda concentration (<2%). This study highlights that to optimize food processes in a more precise way, cleaning kinetics should be included and used to identify parameters that influence performance of the overall process.