3 replies to this topic

[Carrot]

Hello,
I am new on this forum.

I manage the Automated Chlorine Dosing system in a root vegetable wash plant. One of the final stages of the wash is a Hydro-Cooling with mains water dosed with Sodium Hypochlorite (<10ppm Free Chlorine). We are considering alternatives to this "industry standard" method.

I was wondering if others use chlorination too and whether others have migrated to an alternative such as Chlorine Dioxide, Ozone or UV Disinfection.

Thanks,

[Simon]

Can anyone help Carrot with this query?

[Charles.C]

Dear Carrot,

Slightly off main query.

Not my product area or UK knowledge but from a Dutch auditor in another thread, application of chlorine is apparently prohibited for veg. / fruit there and similarly for imports.
Was another thread from Luxembourg approx. 2yrs back (Hi Max!) and he was using (from memory) a similar compound as swimming pools (...isocyanurate) but that does not currently seem to be so popular for technical reasons (quoting FAO via a slaughterhouse thread here).

Other European countries ??

I looked through several current reviews of the veg. / fruit scene (mainly US oriented) via an ISO 22000 query and a few other products came up such as electrolysed water (?), organic chlorine (not exactly the one above), the objective being to achieve higher bacterial killing power (ie > 2log) + without the known hypochlorination side-issues. ClO2 seemed to have ultimately been found relatively non-user friendly (perhaps not so surprising from my memory of investigating its use for plant water supplies, was pretty expensive also).

Rgds / Charles.C

[ads78]

Chlorine dioxide is considered a more effective product due to its effetiveness in "dirty" water such as in your process. However, the main point I imagine you are trying to mitigate would be bacterial rot post packing?

I would suggest that the common soil born bacteria that normally cause this (pectobacterium) are normally adequately controlled by low temeprature regimes. For potatoes we only go down to about +8 but carrots may be able to go lower. The issue with using chlorine is that it is effectively bound up by all the soil in the water and effectively becomes redundant.

We do use a chlorine dioxide spray bar, and our water has residual clo2 so both add to the knock down effect. This is auto dosed by mixing the two chemicals together, although I do know you can now buy premixed and stable CLO2 to dose with just a normal dosatron type pump.