Fix Your PLATEK CIP System to Your Process

Most of the equipment used in food industry has to be cleaned and disinfected by CIP systems on a daily bases per a cleaning schedule that indicates which equipment is to be cleaned, who is responsible for cleaning it, how it should be cleaned, how frequently it is done, and who is responsible for checking that cleaning has been done properly.

This ensures a constant product quality, efficient heat transfer in heat exchangers, improves or keeps stable the efficiency of pumping systems and avoids possible growth of microorganisms. 

Generally, start-up of closed processing lines in liquid industry (e.g. dairy, beverage.. ) is done by circulating hot water in order to make sure there is nomore contamination on the process line.

Cleaning and disinfection are quite critical for quality and safety in the food industry. With production batches getting smaller and product diversity increasing, flexibility in CIP processes has increased in importance.

Soils can initially be divided into two basic types: those that are water-soluble and those that are insoluble in water. Water-soluble soils such as sugars and some minerals are easily removed and are seldom associated with cleaning problems. The water-insoluble soils, however, are harder to remove. These can be divided into organic soils and inorganic soils.

Organic soils include fats, oils, grease, protein, starch and other carbohydrates. If these components have been heated during processing, the heat may have induced reactions in the soil matrix that make them more difficult to remove. Proteins may, for example, denature and induce further cross-linking reactions with other protein molecules (see photo above on UHT milk) or may also react with carbohydrates and cause Maillard reactions (caramelization) to take place. Organic soil is most often dissolved by alkaline detergents. Inorganic soils include mineral and salt deposits. The most common inorganic soil is limescale formed due to high water hardness. Milkstone is also a common inorganic soil. Inorganic soils are most often dissolved by acid.

• Alkaline detergents remove organic soil, such as protein and fats.
• Acid detergents remove inorganic soil, such as mineral deposits.

Parameters that influence the effectiveness of cleaning are (a) time, (b) concentration of detergent and/or sterilising agent(s), (c) temperature and (d) flow. The efficiency of cleaning can be improved by the right combination of temperature, concentration of cleaning solution and flow.

• Factors Leadıng To An EXCELLENT CIP Procedure

The choice of a cleaning procedure strongly depends on the type of contamination and fouling; hence type of the food and the conditions. Processing temperature and running time affect how the equipment will be soiled

For example; In milk-processing systems, the first cleaning phase is an alkaline phase followed by an acid phase since the deposit contains mainly proteins and fat. For whey-processing systems, the first cleaning phase is an acid phase since the components of the deposit are mainly minerals.

Within the entire food compositions; proteins are considered to be the most difficult to remove especially when the it is unfolded or denatured

    

Optimum Temperature for CIP

An optimum temperature for cleaning of pasteurisation equipment is between 65 and 70◦C. Temperatures above 80◦C do not always imply a better cleaning result, whereas energy use is increased (steam, hot water), corrosion may occur on the surface of the equipment, and it might lead to reactions of proteins in the deposit.

Optimum Concentration For a CIP Solution

• Concerning alkaline solutions, a concentration of 0.5 g 100 g−1 is optimal to remove organic fouling from the surface.
• Higher concentrations (>1 g 100 g−1) will lead to impermeable rubber-like layers that are difficult to remove.
• Concentrations lower than 0.3 g 100 g−1 are not sufficient to remove the fouling from the surface.

             Flow Rate

Sufficient flow is required for taking away the loosened deposit. However, it is not necessary to have turbulent flowas there is no theoretical justification for this.

The continuous monitoring of those factors will result in an objective analysis of the cleaning procedure. Although these findings are common knowledge in the dairy industry, still many plants do not use the optimal cleaning procedures. Even when cleaning processes are adjusted (e.g. in capacity) efficiency is not optimised automatically. Therefore, significant improvements in cleaning efficiency can be achieved 

• Guide For An Effective CIP Application

As part of a normal production cycle, for example, between product runs, it is standard procedure to finalize the production cycle by pushing out the food product with water before the cleaning procedure starts.

           The procedure for cleaning a plant often follows these steps.

• How to Dry After CIP ?

All equipment should be washed with hot water and a cleaning agent that is recommended for use within the industry, and then rinsed with chlorinated water. At the end of a working day, a slight ‘chlorine’ odour in the processing room indicates that it has been properly cleaned. After the cleaning; Equipment and surfaces should be allowed to dry in the air, because wiping with cloths can re-contaminate them.

• Water Hardness on CIP Usage

All equipment should be washed with hot water and a cleaning agent that is recommended for use within the industry, and then rinsed with chlorinated water. At the end of a working day, a slight ‘chlorine’ odour in the processing room indicates that it has been properly cleaned. After the cleaning; Equipment and surfaces should be allowed to dry in the air, because wiping with cloths can re-contaminate them.

Water is used for preparing products in mixing stations, cleaning, starting up lines, as cooling and heating media, flushing out products and rinsing.

Water hardness is of great importance. This is a measure of how much calcium and magnesium there is in the water. There are several units for measuring hardness of water. In Europe use of the German degrees (°dH) are common. But they all can be expressed as mg CaCO3/L, to make them comparable.

1 °dH German degree = 17.9 mg CaCO3/L

Water with a hardness above 7 °dH needs to be softened to a hardness between 4 – 7 °dH (See Table 4). When hard water is heated, calcium carbonate is precipitated, and carbon dioxide and water is formed as well. If equipment is sterilized with hard water, calcium carbonate will precipitate throughout the plant. Scaling of CaCO3 is, however, easily removed with acid cleaning. Calcium salts may also interfere with detergents and make them less efficient.

PLATECH – Your CIP Partner

PLATECH’s development engineers, process engineers, designers and field service engineers are very knowledgeable in the field of CIP and cleaning technology. If you would like to gain more insights into hygienic design, operation and cleaning – particularly if you need advice when integrating processing equipment into a line – feel free to contact your PLATECH representative or send an e-mail to sales@platek.com.tr