8 replies to this topic

[Blossom]

Hello All

 

We are a baking company with low risk, low water activity product.

We do have fans to cool the product and for employees working in production. But , It gets really hot in the production with the heat from ovens and the summer days.

My Company is  planning to buy evaporative coolers , before that I need to know what are the contamination risks associated with them.

Any advice will be helpful.

Thanks

 

 

[mgourley]

What kind of evap coolers? The ones mounted on the roof of the facility and ducted in or some free standing system inside the facility?

 

Marshall

[Scampi]

They need to be included in your PM program for disassembly and cleaning. Also make sure that the drip pans are drained into an actual drain (or as close as you can get) so that any accumulating water doesn't spill over the sides.

 

The "gills" on the sides will get quite dirty quite fast because of all the flour particles in the air, so start with a high cleaning frequency and work your way down. Obviously water + flour = glue and a nice breeding ground for microbes

 

"Direct evaporative cooling (open circuit) is used to lower the temperature and increase the humidity of air by using latent heat of evaporation, changing liquid water to water vapor. In this process, the energy in theair does not change. Warm dry air is changed to cool moist air."

 

Cool moist air? Is that something they really want to add to your production area? Depending on the amount of humidity added it could affect the finished product in the cooling phase, but I'm sure the maintenance manager has thought of that.................

[Blossom]

Thanks for your reply Scampi. We are a small baking company with no separate maintenance department. We are going to have our SQF audit in coming days and I am not sure if SQF Approves to use it or not.

I have few more questions  :

• Water activity of our product is less than 0.9 . Will using evaporative cooling  affect the water activity too?
• Is there a difference between Humidifiers and Evaporative Cooling?

[Scampi]

#1, no your water activity will not change (that's inherent based on the recipe) 

 

#2, a humidifier works basically the same way as more humid air will always feel cooler (difference between winter in SW Ontario and winter in moosejaw LOL, both are -30 but one feels mighty cold compared to the other)

 

I'm guessing it has been chosen because A) it's cheaper than AC to run, B) they work best in hot dry environments. I would be putting a humidity reader on the production floor somewhere just so you can monitor any changes.  I'm thinking about quality too.....if you make a crisp finished good, how will the relative humidity change affect the amount of time you have to get that product in a package before it starts to soften?

 

The real risk here is the unit becoming a breeding ground because it simply isn't cleaned often enough.....you could end up breeding yeasts/mold and pathogens which will shorten shelf life at best, and contaminate your product at worst

 

 

SQF can't approve to disapprove of anything. Period. Do not let anyone tell you differently. GFSI programs are designed to help ensure you are producing a wholesome product, it is up to you to do your research and implement controls if you think something poses a hazard.

[Coolerado]

Hi Blossom!

 

Have you ever thought about going with the Indirect Evaporative Cooling? This article explains how this product uses evaporation instead of refrigerant and filters out allergens without releasing humidity into the building.

http://www.climatewi...m/how-it-works/

 

It's much more energy-efficient and is great for the environment. Plus, it actually works better than a lot of expensive air conditioners. You should check them out!

[Blossom]

Thanks Coolerado , We have started looking into indirect cooling options aswell, something like portable AC with ducts going up in the ceiling.

[rsuong]

I am in a bakery as well. Our products are low water activity. We add it to our Preventive maintenance schedule and our master sanitation schedule.


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[susangopher]

Just a caution- we installed a huge ventilation unit on our main high care area this year.  We just had a problem because product was placed near to the intake and because it came out of cold storage and was not tempered, it caused the ventilated air to condense on it.  That made the product very damp and we had to deal with that... I had thought that the ventilation unit was dehumidified air but it turned out to be just like a swamp cooler.  NOT GOOD =o((