Failure at Sterilization

Dear All

Warm Greeting

Can anybody help me in understanding the reason why a product (Fruit puree) gets spoiled with in 10 days of its sterilisation & aseptic packing. What are the factors that can go wrong during the sterilisation. The steriliser is a PLC operated one & the desired temperature was maintained during the process.

My query would be the packaging stage and particulalry the package integrity for such as situation. Are any tests conducted to verify the packaged product is leaking in any way?

Dear All,

For the acronymn-challenged like myself, PLC apparently  = Programmable Logic controller

It may seem simplistic but why not compare the run / data against another product where there is no problem ? hopefully the latter exists ?

Otherwise I fear a specific answer is "uncountable" without a lot more questions / data.

Rgds / Charles.C

PS - (added) - hopefully no plc error messages like this -

 PLC error messages.png   265.56KB   3 downloads

Hello,

did you do a step control?

What is the micro count before heating (normal range or higher than usual)?

Is the fruit puree free of micros after heating?

Did you check conditions of thee packaging?

There are also a lot of possibilities to have trouble with equipment

- wrong / miscalibrated thermocouple

- leaking heat exchanger, contaminating product within the heat process

- leaking valves on bypass of heat exchanger (giving possibility to pump unsterilized product into the "sterile" section after heat exchanger

- having junctions with dead ends in the piping. So unsterile product may be "stored" in dead ends, resulting in contamination afterwards during production

- any change in equipment? new sanitizer...? new pipes...?

- broken stirrer, so heat distribution is not equal within the system

- blocked tubes in bundle heat exchanger, so time of sterilisation is much shorter

- plates heat exchangers plates or sealing may be installed in wrong order

Perhaps there are some comments, which may help in solving the problem.

Yours

Werner

Hi

I would suggest 4 areas to look at:

a. The product was not sterile when packed

b. The packing process was not aseptic

c. The packaging leaks

d. The packaging was contaminated

You would have to look at eliminating each of the areas and then concentrate in detail, as has been outlined by other replies, on the areas that are left.

rgds

Dear All

 

Warm Greeting

 

Can anybody help me in understanding the reason why a product (Fruit puree) gets spoiled with in 10 days of its sterilisation & aseptic packing. What are the factors that can go wrong during the sterilisation. The steriliser is a PLC operated one & the desired temperature was maintained during the process.

Hi Sujit,

Please confirm if this was a gross or sporadic failure.

Regards,

Tony