FQN investigates hygiene, cleaning and sanitation

Knuth Lorenzen, president of EHEDG, said it tries to give guidance to industry on how to improve hygienic design.

"They would like to clean in place but it's not always possible. So all open processes are not cleanable in place so they are cleaned out of place except when you close this equipment you can go back to cleaning in place," ​he told FoodQualityNews. 

"Cleaning in place can be much more automated so it's easier to repeat the quality. If it's outside cleanability it's mainly manual, maybe the Monday is different than the Tuesday."​

Hygienic design module for engineers​

Lorenzen said the industry has a good understanding of the importance of hygienic design.

"They are focussing on easily cleanable components but what they get still today from the manufacturers section, can we still be different, because hygienic design is not a must module to study for our engineers and that is the reason we educate people," ​he said.

"So when we get from university a graduate engineer, he wasn't trained in hygienic design and has then to manufacture components or machinery for the food industry, he fails, and this we still find in the field has happened. ​

"Therefore we write guidelines, we develop also training material to educate people in hygienic design and we bring this material to the level of the universities to have in future a Batchelor and Masters degree in hygienic design. This improves the situation that then we get knowledgeable people from the university level to the industry which is not a fact today."​   

EHEDG is a consortium of equipment manufacturers, food industries, research institutes and public health authorities to promote hygiene during processing and packing of food.

Members include Alfa Lavel, Barry Callebaut Manufacturing UK, Buhler, Cargill, DuPont USA, GEA, KHS, Vikan, Sidel and SICK.

Test and certification institutes can be found in Denmark, Spain, UK, France, Germany, USA and the Netherlands.

It also has regional sections in countries with the USA group in the course of formation, while ones are planned in Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Romania and South Africa.

Ecolab foam dispensing system​

FQN also spoke to Ecolab, which was demonstrating HYBRID, a line of foam dispensing equipment for the European food and beverage industry launched last year, at the trade show.

Developed jointly with Nilfisk Food it can handle a variety of foam applications, including direct injection or pre-diluted chemicals, fixed or variable product metering and the dispensing of multiple cleaning types.

HYBRID uses Nilfisk Food’s Corona Technology, a circular air compression system that mixes water, air and cleaning solutions to produce a foam with improved adhesive properties compared to existing products.

It can be used in food processing facilities to clean production lines and open places, such as floors and tables, and in dairies and beverage production plants.

Frans Hendriks, marketing manager equipment and external suppliers, food and beverage division EMEA, said the key is mixing the foam in a different way.

"By that we have a longer application time. The foam sticks longer, the air is actually the transporter of the liquids and it has to stick to the wall. As long as the foam sticks the longer penetration time you have."  ​