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Reference project
Mellifiq ensures product quality for American nutrient food producer
Application
Room sanitation for bacteria and viruses
Market
Food production
Location
Rhode Island, USA
Air volume
12,000 m3
Room layout
Two warehouses, seven rooms in total
Project value (USD)
200,000
Introduction.
SteriMaid™ prevents microbial intrusion into critical production areas
The customer in this project is a non-profit organization founded in 2009. Its main goal is to help prevent malnutrition, a ongoing health crisis that is responsible for the deaths of 3 million children each year in many parts of the world.
Based in Providence, the organization has grown rapidly and now produces 1.2 million packets of ready-to-use food every single day. Plumpy’Nut® is their main product, which complies with the WHO definition of RUTF (Ready-to-use therapeutic food) by using a special F-100 milk formulation. The production of Plumpy’Nut® is completely automated, having the highest standards of hygiene and contamination prevention possible.
The problem.
The company’s production plant is very large due to its high capacity and the various processing steps. The facilities are divided into two main warehouses with a total air volume of 12 000 m3. These main warehouses in turn consist of several individual production areas.
Bacteria contamination is one of the most common problems in the food industry, and sudden contamination outbreaks may lead to production losses. Even if the standards at the production planct were the highest ones possible, they wanted to add an additional layer of protection.
It was essential that this extra quality assurance implementation was performed with ozonation. The sanitation of each room needed to be effective, fast and automated; it was important not to disturb the production process. It was also crucial for the organization that they could prevent risks from inadvertant external contamination due to human factors.
This case was particularly challenging due to the large air volumes and the complex room layout. In addition, the ozone concentration needed to be continuously measured in the sanitized room.
The solution.
A treatment cycle is considered successful only when a certain ozone concentration is maintained for a predetermined period.
The SteriMaid™ was the ozone system chosen for this application due to its high degree of automation and out-of-the-box-functionality. This product is an upgrade of the regular version of the RENA Pro C-series, possessing a special module designed for sanitation applications. This add-on makes it possible to configure the desired ozone concentration and sanitation time. In addition, settings for multiple rooms can be saved. This makes it possible to easily choose which room to treat using the included user interface. The user friendly interface touch panel also presents information about the progress and completion of the sanitation cycle.
The SteriMaid™ module is actively controlled through a user-defined set of wireless ozone sensors. The sanitation progress can be closely monitored and automated using a function to make customizable sanitation cycles.
Mellifiq delivery
Dimensions (HxWxD)
1,800 x 1,200 x 800 mm
Weight
190 kg
Input power
2.8 kW
Number of wireless ozone sensors
10
Performance
Automatic ozone level control in seven separate production sections. User-set sanitation cycles with upper ozone level concetration for at least 3-log microbial reduction. Turn-key ozone systems with touch panel.
Evaluation.
Mellifiq performed commissioning in cooperation with the plant operations manager, and the SteriMaid™ was integrated into the organization’s operations, implementing a routine of regular sanitation cycles.
The system managed to outperformed the 0.7 ppm active sanitation requirements, treating each room with no disturbance to the production line while being a completely automated operation. After each sanitation cycle, no microbial contamination can be detected at all. In addition, the system is adding an additional layer of protection for operators.
The plant’s operation manager is satisfied with the new sanitation levels and the safer work environment for employees that our ozonation solution provides!
