Appropriate water testing frequency for a site that is largely dry?
Hi all, I'd like views on an appropriate water testing frequency for a site which is largely dry. We produce a number of milled dry goods. During the milling process a small amount of water is used in the final polishing stage, however the final product is dry - moisture content <13%. Would an annual testing regime be appropriate for such a site which uses minimal water? I performed preliminary micro and chemical tests which show the water is pesticide and heavy metal compliant. The micro results were all within spec (below 1 /100ml). Thanks, Alfie
Hi Alfie,
We are a BRC accredited bakery and we test water annually. Our procedure is to test at point of use at least annually, if monitoring indicates adverse results then we test further upstream to find source of contamination.
Hope this helps
In my experience if you can prove why you test as often as you do based upon records/risk analysis then you can test as often as your program states.
We have a mill as a client and they test - drinking water, water (small amount like your operation) used as a processing aid and water used in cleaning once a month.
The amount of water usage doesn't matter as long as it's USED in production - and I believe for cleaning as well. I think, testing frequency should be monthly - at least until you have enough historical data to prove that testing frequency could be decreased to say every 6 months or so.
Alfiebru, is this potable mains supply?
You may already be well aware of it, but in the UK it's easy* to get copies of testing from your mains supplier to help substantiate your risk position. This should include quite a large suite of parameters (far more than you'd ever pay to test for yourself).
*It may involve some amount of time speaking to a call centre, although our water supplier has now got an online thing that makes it very easy to get the latest monitoring results, so I'd check online first.
We're a dry blending facility that doesn't use water in the process, only for cleaning. I test once a year in two places in the facility. Using it in your process, even though only a little, it seems to me you'd need to test more often than that, but to me personally monthly seems like overkill. How about quarterly?