This will depend on the type of disinfectant used. In general hypochlorite based disinfectants should be rinsed to remove the taint potential.
With peracteic acid and hydrogen peroxide based products, rinsing is often not necessary, but a risk assessment and taint tests will need to be carried out.
With QAC and Triamine based products it has been traditional in the UK and Ireland to not rinse. Food businesses must comply with regulation (EC) No 396/2005 on maximum residual levels of QAC. The UK and Irish food manufacturing sector, particularly the chilled ready-to-eat sector, are unusual in the European Union due to not rinsing off food contact surfaces prior to production recommencing, increasing the risk of QAC levels being in excess of the proposed 0.1mg/I MRL.
Complying with the regulation can be done via validation of the process to ensure food is below the MRL required levels, rinsing food contact surfaces to remove the QAC disinfectant or changing to a non-QAC disinfectant.
There are strong technical reasons to leave a disinfectant on a surface after cleaning. Firstly, they provide a protective challenge to food contact surfaces, such that if the surface is subsequently cross contaminated by pathogenic or spoilage microorganisms, the disinfectant residue will provide a biocidal action. Secondly, there is often insufficient time for process lines and the environment to dry prior to production commencing. Thirdly, holding cleaned utensils and small items of equipment in disinfectant soak baths allows penetration of disinfectant into surface features and preserves their low microbial surface count prior to subsequent reuse.