3 replies to this topic

[rosie]

Has anyone any experience of cooling water systems.
We use a closed loop system of water to cool our equipment and need to add an additive to prevent corrosion. The data sheets for additives we have been supplied with fall short of saying that the additives is suitable for use in food processing areas. This is probably because it is not designed to be used in food processing areas , but we need to take into account the risk of water leaks and ensure we don't contaminate our products (pots for food use). Now, we do have water leaks (too frequently).

Any help or advice appreciated.

R

[tsmith7858]

Has anyone any experience of cooling water systems.
We use a closed loop system of water to cool our equipment and need to add an additive to prevent corrosion. The data sheets for additives we have been supplied with fall short of saying that the additives is suitable for use in food processing areas. This is probably because it is not designed to be used in food processing areas , but we need to take into account the risk of water leaks and ensure we don't contaminate our products (pots for food use). Now, we do have water leaks (too frequently).

Any help or advice appreciated.

R

I don't have details, but I do know that there are "food safe" chemicals that can be used. We use them for both cooling and boiler (steam) treatment.

Do you use an outside service for maintenance of the equipment? If you do, they should be able to supply you information. If not, find out what company currently supplies the chemicals and talk to them.

[Tony-C]

Has anyone any experience of cooling water systems.
We use a closed loop system of water to cool our equipment and need to add an additive to prevent corrosion. The data sheets for additives we have been supplied with fall short of saying that the additives is suitable for use in food processing areas. This is probably because it is not designed to be used in food processing areas , but we need to take into account the risk of water leaks and ensure we don't contaminate our products (pots for food use). Now, we do have water leaks (too frequently).

Any help or advice appreciated.

R

Hi Rosie

You definitely need to use a food grade cooling water treatment chemical, example here I am sure there are many others, just search on the internet. Secondly you really need to stop those leaks or certainly prevent them from getting into the pots with covers if necessary. Good Luck!

Regards,

Tony

[Charles.C]

Dear Tony-C

many thks for the interesting link. I should add that I originally tried to respond to Rosie’s post but googling revealed very,very few claimed-to-be food grade products for me and those were not obviously matched to Rosie’s rather condensed enquiry so I gave up. In my own experience, hv only used corrosion-type additives/cooling waters in locations where no food contact related risk, eg compressors in a workshop although from memory there are some well-known acceptable situations, eg phosphates in steam boilers.


I had a look at the MSDS sheet offered by the producer in yr link. No dispute that the propylene glycol referenced is an approved food additive ( eg http://www.foodditiv...arch/node/e1520 ) however there is no mention of what the (seemingly substantial) “additional” additives might be. I appreciate this secrecy is not unusual in proprietary products and supplier persistence has often caused me to reject their product out-of-hand despite having claimed food-grade status.

I think it is usual for a claim of “food-grade” to be referenced to an awarding body ? The “not classified as a hazard or environmental hazard under current legislation” looked rather cryptic IMO. Compare the discussed MSDS to this one http://msds.fmc.com/..._BIOFOAM K.pdf . I presume the UK does hv some classification system for engineering-type compounds analogous to the US, (eg the HD1 etc ratings.)?.

It’s an important topic but meaningful data seems elusive (as usual).

Rgds / Charles.C