9 replies to this topic

[CStockert]

Hey All, 

 

I have been tasked with cutting down some of the time in our Ice Cream CIP Process. 

 

Our chemical supplier suggested switching from a commodity caustic to a chlorinated caustic in our ice cream department, then taking out our daily acid wash on all of our CIP loops in Ice Cream. We would still be doing a sanitize step with PAA on every wash. As well as, conducting zone 1 micro swabs for APC and Ebac. 

 

Have anyone else done a project similar to this before? Has it been successful? Have you had any micro issues as a result? 

[Adistiyaika]

hello, 

so you just taking out the acid wash in the CIP and also switching the caustic right?

I would say it's okay as long you control the chlorinated dosage, make sure there in no residue. 

 

If I were you, I would do the trial for these.\

cmiiw, thanks

[Slab]

I would think that ADW would be a necessity because of milkstone and other calcium deposits or residues building up in the system. Fairly certain the PAA levels and dwell time used would not eliminate that by itself. You may be able to reduce a daily application of ADW to a more infrequent schedule.

 

I had to use ADW on a weekly basis on a crab processing line because of calcium deposits, which of course can become harborage. The daily detergent was a non-foaming potassium hydroxide, a rinse, and a low-temp non-foaming sanitizer. 

[lorlandini]

I am not familiar with the ice cream making process.  However, several years ago in the beverage industry, I was tasked with reducing a daily hot CIP that was taking over four hours each day.

 

We were using a blending system that blended water to syrup then sent to another unit to chill (ammonia plate) and carbonate and then sent to the filler.

 

Some simple ways that I reduced the time was testing the rinse water for presence of product, cleaning solution, instead of a set time for the rinse.

 

Another way was to install a hot gas escape on the chilling unit.  It was taking a very long time to  CIP system to get to the correct CIP temperature due to the ammonia keeping the chiller cold.  We had our refrigeration company install the hot gas escape loop and this dramatically reduced the time it took for the CIP skid to heat to the correct cleaning temperature, as all that ammonia was instantly pumped into the surge tank and allowed the chiller to get hot.

 

We were able to reduce the four hour CIP to 100 minutes.  Swabbing and extensive testing vetted the change.

 

Leo

 

 

 

 

[Ryan M.]

Yes, completely reasonable to do this.  If you choose the right chemicals you can definitely eliminate the need for daily acid washes.  What is a factor in this is how long does the equipment sit with product before it is rinsed or CIP'd?  If this is a short time then you really don't need to do any changes because most of the milkstone occurs from product sitting on the equipment and drying before rinse or cleaning takes place.

 

Chlorinated caustic blends are pretty common in the industry now.  Most chemical companies will have a chlorinated caustic blend that targets dairy with the right emulsifiers and surfactants to help remove the protein residues.  Some of them may help with the milkstone, but not always.  If your certifications allow use a blended sanitizer that is low in pH to help remove any milkstone leftover and shine the surfaces.  

 

To observe the effectiveness you just need to inspect the equipment before and after CIP cleaning.  It is quite easy to tell if milkstone was present and then removed, or if you have milkstone building up over time.  The micro testing is not really a good indicator of this until it gets so bad it creates harborage for bacteria and then results in a biofilm.

 

The type / piece of equipment needs to be taken into consideration as well.  What I mean by this is heat exchangers and hot equipment will generally incur milkstone buildup more frequently and more rapidly than pieces of equipment that are cold, such as product tanks.

[GMO]

I'd say that daily acid washes seems extreme.  I don't know any cheese dairies doing them that often.  Chlorinated caustics can be good at breaking down the proteins in milk and certainly I've used them and they're effective in dairy but they don't eliminate / remove milkstone in my experience.  We still did weekly acid cleans in the vats in my last place and you'd see micro creep up if you didn't. 

 

Be very skeptical of any salesperson though if they're claiming the chlorine is going to be effective as a disinfectant.  With the caustic, the pH is far too high for it to give an effective kill.  I've found a lot of cleaning chemical suppliers not even understand this and give shaky advice as a result claiming chlorinated caustics are effective sanitisers (i.e. mixed detergent and disinfectant efficacy) when they're not.

 

Of course do make sure you're effectively rinsing your pipework before the PAA step or you may produce chlorine gas... 

[CStockert]

Yes, completely reasonable to do this.  If you choose the right chemicals you can definitely eliminate the need for daily acid washes.  What is a factor in this is how long does the equipment sit with product before it is rinsed or CIP'd?  If this is a short time then you really don't need to do any changes because most of the milkstone occurs from product sitting on the equipment and drying before rinse or cleaning takes place.

 

Chlorinated caustic blends are pretty common in the industry now.  Most chemical companies will have a chlorinated caustic blend that targets dairy with the right emulsifiers and surfactants to help remove the protein residues.  Some of them may help with the milkstone, but not always.  If your certifications allow use a blended sanitizer that is low in pH to help remove any milkstone leftover and shine the surfaces.  

 

To observe the effectiveness you just need to inspect the equipment before and after CIP cleaning.  It is quite easy to tell if milkstone was present and then removed, or if you have milkstone building up over time.  The micro testing is not really a good indicator of this until it gets so bad it creates harborage for bacteria and then results in a biofilm.

 

The type / piece of equipment needs to be taken into consideration as well.  What I mean by this is heat exchangers and hot equipment will generally incur milkstone buildup more frequently and more rapidly than pieces of equipment that are cold, such as product tanks.

 

 

Thank you for your insights!

 

Product tanks are immediately cleaned once left empty. We are still using an acid sanitizer- PAA, Peroxyacetic Acid following our caustic washes everyday, and will continue to do a weekly acid wash on all tanks!

[Ryan M.]

Thank you for your insights!

 

Product tanks are immediately cleaned once left empty. We are still using an acid sanitizer- PAA, Peroxyacetic Acid following our caustic washes everyday, and will continue to do a weekly acid wash on all tanks!

 

Don't assume the PAA is low enough in pH in solution to help with any milkstone.  Reach out to your chemical vendor to determine.  PAA sanitizer blends can be a wide variety of pH level in the at range solution.  I've seen up to 5.5 on pH with PAA sanitizer at target in solution.

[CStockert]

Don't assume the PAA is low enough in pH in solution to help with any milkstone.  Reach out to your chemical vendor to determine.  PAA sanitizer blends can be a wide variety of pH level in the at range solution.  I've seen up to 5.5 on pH with PAA sanitizer at target in solution.

 

I did a validation last week and the PAA was 1.9 on most of our sanitize steps. 

[GMO]

I did a validation last week and the PAA was 1.9 on most of our sanitize steps. 

 

It sounds low but I do agree with Ryan's comment.  You may find you can reduce your acid washes to descale but I'd be very keen not to get rid of them completely.  Acid descales don't just normally contain "hard" (i.e. mineral) acids so the pH will be retained at that low level for some time as it acts on the scale (organic acids like PAA have a much more gentle pH / titration curve so they creep up to neutral far more quickly) but also the descale chemicals normally contain several sequestering agents which help get the scale and milk stone into solution and keep it there.  PAA is just not designed to descale, even though it's acidic.

 

The best thing to do is a bit of trial and error.  Take your chemical supplier's advice but act with caution.  Move to every 2 days, do visual inspection and swabs.  I'd recommend using indicator organisms like TVC then slowly stretch out the time.  I would go to a maximum of once a week then only extend further if you have a good lot of verification data from finished product as well (i.e. months) to prove it's not made things worse.  Also it's worth being super careful in your environment as there probably isn't a factory in the world where Listeria isn't present somewhere.  Get that in your pipework with scale and you'd regret it.  So are you being super vigilant and aggressive in your environmental cleaning and staff controls?  Particularly is your fabrication good?  Do you use a good chemical strategy?  Or are your teams a bit slapdash then spraying high pressure hoses around so it gets onto food contact equipment?

 

Ultimately, be cautious.  This is food safety after all even if it makes sense on paper.  You never know if there is somewhere in the system where the turbulence in the flow isn't sufficient for good scale removal but you're getting away with it right now because it never builds up enough with your daily descale.