2 replies to this topic

[astro]

Hi

 

Before I start I know my thoughts on this but I was hoping to get some other thoughts and advice.

 

We are a high care prep facility for chopped fruit. Our current process for example is grapes are devined by hand, wash in a grape bath with chemicals then enter the high care side into trays ready to put into pots.

 

Currently operations have just gone off as we having a big project for automation, so as said they have gone out as they know best purchased a desteming machine to mechanically remove the grapes form the stem they they will go through a UV tunnel. So what are people thoughts and do you see a problem with this as I may need some help.

 

If I can give more info let me know

 

Cheers 

[jfrey123]

What's the end use?  For example, a lot of the grapes you buy in store still bunched comes with notes for the users to wash before consuming.  But you're saying you're a cut fruit facility, so I'm guessing you're packing grapes in tray offerings.  I would be uncomfortable with deleting the wash step entirely.  I don't know enough about UV tunnels to have a helpful insight, but I'd speculate you'll end up with a bunch of dirty grapes that have been "sanitized" via UV.

 

Probably sounds great to one of your execs, "Sanitize without water!"  But the grapes are still dirty to begin with.

[Tony-C]

Hi astro,

 

Removing the washing stage and replacing it with UV would concern me as well.

 

UV works well on flat surfaces that are close to the light so for example flat packaging such as foil lids.

 

The problem with UV is the proximity and shadowing, I have experienced these problems on a new production line and in the end the project switched to a rinse.

 

My question would be how is the UV tunnel set up to ensure that all parts of the fruit receive UV coverage at the right intensity to kill the microbes of concern?

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony

Edited by Tony-C, Today, 06:44 AM.