10 replies to this topic

[MmeMuffin]

Still in the process of writing our first Food Safety Management System and the boss just bought new lights for our flour milling room. 

Since I don't know much about the design of LED lights, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas if these would require any special treatment or if they would be treated the same as other glasses/brittle plastics. 

http://www.led-llc.c..._Spec_Sheet.pdf
http://www.led-llc.c...-360-beam-angle

My main concern is that it has this plastic cover that has small slits in it. It has a fan built in for cooling purposes, and that should keep flour from building up within it, but I am still somewhat hesitant about these (probably because I am afraid of things I don't know and understand inside and out!)...

anyone have thoughts? things to take into consideration?

It's light-years ahead of what we had before, which was an uncovered CFL bulb with coils that collected flour. I'm glad he listened to my ranting and got something to replace it, but I would have liked to have done some research and consideration before making a purchase .

Thanks in advance!
 

[MWidra]

One concern would be from a fire safety angle.  It there's a fan inside to dissipate the heat, and it is an area of high flour dust, that may pose an ignition hazard.  I also understand that the diode itself generates a lot of heat (hence the fan.)  I would contact the LED manufacturer and ask if the lights are OK to use in a combustible dust environment.  But I don't know how much dust is in that area, you know better.

 

From a glass and plastic view, it's no worse than other kinds of light bulbs, you will need to monitor them for breakage of the skin.

 

You will have flour dust entering and staying in the light, but maybe being blown out the slits at a later time point.  I would monitor them for mold or ATP to make sure that nothing starts growing in the retained flour.

 

Let us know what you find out, I'm sure lots of people are considering switching to LED lighting.

 

Martha

[Setanta]

I would definitely consider asking the manufacturer what they think of this usage. 

[RG3]

Great it has a fan built in it for cooling. What happens if the fan goes out? Does it spontaneously combust? I don't like the design because it looks difficult to clean. Looks like it has a web cover. Smooth surfaces are easier to clean. LED is the future. Please let us know what the supplier says.

[Snookie]

 I would monitor them for mold or ATP to make sure that nothing starts growing in the retained flour.

 

 

ATP won't work, because flour is a plant based material, so it is going to give a positive reading. 

 

I agree with RG3 about the design. 

 

I am not fond of the heavy metal aspects of LEDS's.  http://www.scientifi...tbulb-concerns/

[MWidra]

ATP won't work, because flour is a plant based material, so it is going to give a positive reading. 

 

 

Now you have challenged the scientist in me.  ATP is very labile (breaks down fast), I remember from using it for luminescence assays.  I had thought that it would have degraded by the time that the flour is milled since that process generates heat.  I'm going to bring in some flour and try it out in my ATP assay.

 

You can always take a baseline reading for the flour alone, and set your fail limits to 2x-3x times that.

 

It's all about having the proper controls.

 

I'll let you know the results...

 

Martha

Edited by MWidra, 23 December 2014 - 02:21 PM.

[rrana]

please read the article http://www.delmarfan...nt-light-bulbs/

[Snookie]

Now you have challenged the scientist in me.  ATP is very labile (breaks down fast), I remember from using it for luminescence assays.  I had thought that it would have degraded by the time that the flour is milled since that process generates heat.  I'm going to bring in some flour and try it out in my ATP assay.

 

You can always take a baseline reading for the flour alone, and set your fail limits to 2x-3x times that.

 

It's all about having the proper controls.

 

I'll let you know the results...

 

Martha

 

You might be surprised at tenacious ATP is.    Your right about establishing baseline readings.  Look forward to results. 

[MWidra]

You might be surprised at tenacious ATP is.    Your right about establishing baseline readings.  Look forward to results. 

I brought some flour from home.  It is not pristine, it's been in the canister and out of the bag for months.  So I considered this to be a good control for something that has gotten into a light fixture but not grown anything.

 

Materials and Methods:

 

3M Clean-Trace luminometer and swabs.

Flour transported in a commercial plastic sandwich bag, no pre-sterilization done.

 

I put a goodly amount of flour on the 3M Clean-Trace swab.  Not loaded, but some sort of caked on.  Used as normal.  The solution in the chamber after the 5 second shake was a bit turbid, so there was a significant amount of flour on it.

 

Results:

 

Luminometer read 2,383 RLU. 

 

Discussion:

 

Not an outrageous reading, but not at the level of a clean background.  And the flour probably interfered with the light transmission and lowered the reading.

 

Conclusions:

 

This would work if care was taken to have about the same amount of turbidity in all the samples.  With practice, this could be achieved with the reproducibility needed for a crude test.  If this would be the background reading that is found in the mill, then a positive would have to be, at a minimum, 5,000 RLU.  For this kind of measurement of biological material, it would not be significant until the readings reached twice the background amounts.  So this is not a great method, but could, with consistent sampling, yield useful data.  Not sure if it is cost effective.

 

Personally, I'd find better LED lights, there are too many minuses.

 

This was fun, a quick and easy science project.  I spent more than 45 years in science, it's always good to keep in practice and go back to your roots. 

 

Martha

[charu13]

Good Day,

We are pizzas and burger cardboard boxes manufacturing.Even we are planing to replace existing lights with the LED . But dont know to what extent it will be suitable..

 

Please advice .

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

Regards,

Charu Tyagi

[FoodSafety_101]

Hi,

 

I like sensor-LED lights for facilities with one solid plastic cover ( no slits, full solid cover to protect shattered bulbs). The initial upfront fee is costly, but the savings are significant moving forward. Their might even be government rebates on switching to LED's as they are energy saving, I say this as Canada (more specifically, Ontario) granted rebates for facilities if they switched to energy-saving lights. 

 

Hope this helps.