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Effective treatment solutions for food & beverage production

The food and beverage industry has undergone a series of changes in the last decade due to the rapidly changing behaviors of consumers, technological advancements and more stringent regulations. To advance towards more sustainable and environmentally friendly production, the industry needs to reduce its use of chemicals, water and energy.

Needless to say, water is a very crucial component of the food and beverage industry. Besides being the raw material, water is used in many other parts of the daily operations, from cleaning other raw materials to incorporate water in many recipes and final products. Water used in production processes also needs to be treated to ensure that the quality of the final product is not affected. All water, leaving the production plant need also to be treated in order to meet discharge limitations set by the local authorities.

Chemicals and filtration technologies have since long been standard for water treatment in the food and beverage industry. However, today Mellifiq offers a realistic, more cost-effective and sustainable solution for water treatment based on ozone and advanced oxidation technology.

Mellifiq offer more than 20 years of experience implementing advanced oxidation solutions in the food and beverage processing industry. Our innovative solutions, combining ozone and conventional technologies, are ideal for production, clean-in-place processes as well as treatment of the discharged wastewater.

Our goal is to offer a more efficient and sustainable solution that helps you to improve your business profitability and output quality. By reducing your energy costs you will also automatically lower your production facility’s environmental impact.

Common challenges in the food & beverage industry.

Contamination of process equipment

Enclosed process equipment, such as piping systems, vessels, heat exchangers, evaporators and storage tanks which come in contact with fresh or processed food and beverage must be thoroughly sanitized and kept clean all the time. To achieve prolonged shelf-life requires effective sanitation of packages and rinsing of bottles, both for beverages, foods, spices, and highly viscous fluids such as sauces, ketchup and mustard.

Continuous sanitation is a necessity not only to maintain a high level of product quality but also to keep a proper level of hygiene in the work environment to help avoid spoilage and reduced durability. Contamination can also lead to reduced lifespan of equipment, excessive maintenance costs and severely reduced product quality.

Costly and environmentally harmful rinsing systems

During the handling of fresh products like tomatoes, potatoes and lettuce, it is of utmost importance to avoid cross-contamination of bacteria and other microorganisms that may arise from growth on open process equipment, for example conveyor belts, which leads to using rinsing systems for disinfection. Traditional methods often involve the use chemicals, which are costly and environmentally harmful.

Increased costs due to excessive chemical use

To reduce the risk of contamination, there is often excessive use of chemical substances across the food and beverage industry. Using chemicals for decontamination purposes can lead to increased costs of purchase, transportation, storage, handling and discharge which creates real negative environmental impact and increased operational costs.

Bacteria and mold in cooling systems

Many food processing facilities are dependent on cooling loops and towers for low-temperature storage or temperature control of purified water (PW) used in production. Ice water-based cooling systems are prone to microbial growth, which clog filters, causes a biofilm build-up and enhances the risk of Legionella outbreaks and general non-hygienic conditions.

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Our solutions for a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly business.

Mellifiq offers a wide range of cost-effective solutions based on innovative advanced oxidation technology. Our solutions are designed to reduce your business costs and environmental footprint while at the same time improving your profitability and product quality. Mellifiq delivers a wide range of turn-key sanitation solutions for the food and beverage industry across the globe.

Sanitation of process equipment and eliminating chemical use

The strongly oxidizing characteristics of ozone make it a viable complete replacement for traditional chemical disinfectants. Typical heat treatment of components such as heat exchangers and valves can also be avoided. Our ozone-based systems provide this capability in all industrial food and beverage segments such as:

Sauce production
Dairy producers and milking systems
Juice processing
Handling of fresh produce like fruit and spices
Water bottling plants
Breweries
Personal care production plants

Cost-efficient and environmentally friendly rinsing systems

Upon utilizing an Ozonetech sanitizing system based on ozone the only bi-product is oxygen. This makes it an environmentally friendly alternative to ensuring high standards and freshness in fresh food handling procedures. Thanks to its non-organic, intrinsically natural characteristics, Mellifiq’s range of Ozonetech systems uses the ultimate compound for rinsing vegetables, fresh-cuts and other non-processed products.

Ozone can be used as a replacement for heat treatment thanks to its powerful disinfection and oxidation potential. It’s especially beneficial for heat exchangers, valves and piping which are typically prone to organic fouling and bacterial growth. All Ozonetech systems are easily integrated into the existing process equipment and can be used both for flow-through type treatment or recirculating cleaning cycles.

Eliminating bacteria and mold to increase longevity and reduce operational costs

Our ozone technology provide a very efficient way of ridding the system from all potential growth of bacteria and mold. Our systems provides microbe-free environments with the following benefits:

Elimination of biofilm
Very low operating cost (0.2-0.5 kW total input power depending on the flow and volume of the application)
No harmful by-product build-up
Very gentle on all materials

Ozone systems used in the food & beverage industry

Our Ozonetech RENA Vivo Series, a common solution for the food and beverage industry.

Benefits from powerful disinfection and cleaning using ozone

Ozone has an inherently high oxidation potential, in other words, it has a high ability of oxidizing compounds it comes in direct contact with. It generates a series of chemical pathways upon reaction with organic compounds, producing radicals, which display an even higher oxidation potential compared to ozone itself. This provides a very high disinfection capability and complements traditional chemicals when it comes to breaking down residues of fat, proteins and carbohydrates.

In-site production

Ozone cannot be stored which is one of its main application benefits. Ozone is produced on site from the ambient air – a free of charge natural raw material. Our ozone systems can continuously produce ozone by exposing the oxygen in the air to a high voltage field, using a technology called Corona Discharge.

All Ozonetech water-cooled systems are long-lasting, reliable, require low maintenance and produce high concentration ozone, consuming a low amount of energy. The solutions provided by Mellifiq eliminate the need for chemicals. This means that there is no purchasing, no transportation, no handling, no storage, no waste, and no residues are involved like when using chemicals and hot water, traditionally used for disinfection within the food and beverage industry.

A comparison of different disinfection agents

Compared to other cleaning and disinfection agents, ozone holds many advantages which are outlined in the table below:

Compound	Benefits	Challenges
Acetic Acid (cleaner)	Very effective copper cleaner	Rinse water should be applied to avoid oxide deposits which may promote bacterial growth
Chlorine Dioxide and Sodium Hypochloride (sanitizer)	Effective at breaking up organic compounds Low-cost sanitizer Relatively low reaction temperature	Corrosion may occur, even for stainless steel vessels (SS304 and SS316) Copper vessels are easily oxidized, leaving copper in the beer May affect the taste of the following brew unless boiled water is used for rinsing If system is not cleaned properly, it will lose its sanitizing ability
Ozone (cleaner, sanitizer)	Can be applied cold, thus reducing energy costs Effective oxidizer which removes organic residues and particles Leaves no harmful by-products Produced on-site which eliminates chemical handling Increases shelf-life of product Low consumables (power) cost Very low equipment corrosion	For heavily contaminated surfaces, may need to be complemented with secondary cleaning agent Moderate to high investment cost
Sodium Hydroxide (cleaner)	Very effective detergent and removes organic residues Removes scorched surfaces	Extreme handling caution must be taken to avoid skin and eye damage Very corrosive to aluminum and brass
Peracetic Acid (sanitizer)	Readily available sanitizer agent with minimal by-products Relatively low application temperature	Shelf-life of beer is reduced Limited storage due to low stability Relatively expensive Smells
Iodophor (sanitizer)	Effective sanitizer Keeps the active sanitizer compound (iodine) concentration low	Eye-irritating characteristics – handling precautions must be taken due to it’s skin and stains upon exposure May affect flavor
Heat (sanitizer)	Potentially effective but requires a prolonged exposure at high temperature	High operational costs Time consuming due to heat up and cool down periods

Related reference project.

Effective treatment solutions for food & beverage production