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Improving hygiene standards reduces costly problems

As the consumer appetite for a greater variety of food increases, so does the demand on food manufacturers, and well-worn equipment quickly deteriorates, enhancing the risk of it becoming inoperable.

Trade publications regularly publish alarming lists of food recalls, reinforcing the belief that current Australian manufacturing practices are not of the highest standards. Food manufacturers therefore need to concentrate on greater investment in their plant infrastructure if they are to avoid costly food recalls, becoming at the mercy of stringent industry directives.

Leading process instrumentation specialist Endress+Hauser (E+H) Australia is addressing this need.

“In the food industry, it is imperative to select the correct process instrumentation design with the highest degree of hygienic protection for the particular application,” E+H Managing Director, John Immelman has said.

Immelman highlights the ‘temperature shocks’ that can be caused to manufacturing equipment during cleaning cycles, as just one cause of increased wear.

“The sudden fluctuations in temperature, occuring between the production and cleaning processes, can induce massive stress on the pipe-work and instrumentation. With the demand for faster batching, the CIP/SIP cleaning temperatures are increasing from 90ºC to 120ºC, thereby further exacerbating the temperature shock problem.”

In food and beverage plants, a typical victim of extreme temperature variations is the electromagnetic flow meter. All magflow meters have a liner made out of PTFE (nylon) to isolate the conductive liquid from the outer housing. During the cleaning process, the PTFE softens and loses concentricity, and when cooled, retains the distorted shape, incurring high inaccuracies. The E+H solution is the Promag H which has an embedded metal mesh in the PTFE to ensure it maintains its shape.

Just launched for level measurement in tanks and vats, to specifically handle these temperature shocks, is E+H’s Deltapilot S. A hydrostatic pressure transmitter for level measure of liquids in wet environments, it features the condensation tight pressure sensor technology, CONTITE. The Deltapilot S offers the highest accuracy and repeatability even during rapid and significant temperature changes.

E+H has an extensive range of instrumentation specifically designed (special process connections, highly polished finishes and stainless steel housings) for hygienic applications, to cope with the increasing demands on equipment that measure the parameters crucial to the food industry such as level, flow, pressure, temperature, viscosity, pH and conductivity.

Immelman also points to new international requirements, such as the U.S. standard, FDA 21CFR11, which determines how data must be recorded and stored in food batch processes. As a consequence of the threat of bio-terrorism, food manufacturers are prohibited from exporting food products to the U.S. without 21CFR11 implementation.

“There is an awareness that countries, including Australia, must improve hygiene standards, if they are to compete on a global platform.

“E+H is concerned that the food industry is not keeping pace with technology and that levels of hygienic manufacturing in Australia are not of the highest possible standards.”

Summing up, Immelman said that “not having fully functional hygienic instrumentation in place could be problematic for the industry, however E+H can help solve this with its cost-saving food specific instrumentation.”

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