feature food and beverage hygiene solutions
New challenges in hygiene, ready for the bends in the road Hygiene plays a key role in food production processes and, in many cases, can be considered an integral part of them. In some industries, such as the meat industry, cleaning and disinfection operations can take up to a third of the working day. Thus, it can be understood that the current situation of change, uncertainty and new needs in the food industries also has a great impact on hygiene. We face new questions in hygiene: what can we do? Christeyns, a provider of premium chemicals and reliable equipment to the food processing industry offer insight into what to implement.
New demands and challenges Some of the new demands placed on the food industry also affect hygiene. For example, consumers are demanding maximum food safety, but at the same time, they are demanding food products with minimum intervention – i.e. processed as little as possible. This means that hygiene plays an increasingly important role in preventing crosscontamination and ensuring the quality and safety of food. Climate change also gives rise to new needs affecting hygiene. The most obvious example is the growing importance of water and energy saving. But it also has an impact on the changes that can occur in the microbiota of food and production environments, which can lead to new food risks and affect the shelf life of food. Apart from these factors, we also have changes and pressures caused by demanding regulations. In general, regulations evolve to make the use of cleaning and disinfection products safer, but we have specific cases such as the Biocidal Products Regulation. This
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regulation was designed to unify the criteria for approval of disinfectants and guarantee their safe use, but it imposes many restrictions and conditions that greatly limit their application in practice, which can have the undesired effect of negatively affecting the efficacy of disinfection processes.
The correct response These are just a few examples of the challenges facing hygiene in food industries. In this situation, we need to consider how to effectively respond to these challenges. To do so, we can rely on factors such as: • the advances in knowledge that occur in different scientific disciplines; • the development of new technologies and materials; • co-operation with industry, as well as with the administration and suppliers of hygiene-related tools; and • most importantly, having a global view of all the factors that contribute to efficient hygiene. In this way, we can aim to integrate
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into our hygiene processes aspects that are increasingly in demand, such as: • fast availability of results; • automation of tasks; • better management of information related to hygiene processes; • making hygiene increasingly sustainable; • hygiene management that integrates all the factors that contribute to the best results; and • above all, hygiene processes that build trust. Below are some examples of innovations and new technologies that have been introduced in recent years to help hygiene processes adapt to these new challenges.
Process automation Process automation makes it possible to achieve various improvements in hygiene processes: • Optimisation of the application conditions, setting precise times and amount of energy applied. • Time savings, as dedicated staff can be directed to other operations.
