The invention relates to a cleaning and disinfecting device (2) and to a method for operating a cleaning and disinfecting device (2). A surgical instrument (4) is treated in the cleaning and disinfecting device (2) using a cleaning agent (8) in a validated cleaning and disinfecting process. A control unit (10) for the cleaning and disinfecting device (2) is designed to check, at the beginning of a cleaning and disinfecting operation, whether the surgical instrument (4) to be cleaned belongs to a group of validated surgical instruments (4) and/or whether the cleaning agent (8) to be used belongs to a group of validated cleaning agents (8) and/or whether a validation of the cleaning and disinfection process is valid.
