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Hygiene

 

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Quick scan of hygienic processing brings understanding and improvements

20 February 2009 | By Erik Hoornstra & Jacques Kastelein, TNO Quality of Life

Hygiene is a key focal area among food industry companies. At a time when producers are beset by a whole range of issues, this area demands investment. Ideally, the required level of hygiene should be adjusted in respect to the other requirements in the area of product quality and preservation.…

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Understanding microbial ecology essential for controlling microbial food spoilage

3 December 2008 | By Johanna Björkroth, Professor of Food Hygiene, Helsinki University

As a Professor of Food Hygiene, I have been teaching my students to understand the limitations associated with the determination of total aerobic bacterium levels when used for predicting food shelf life or as quality indicators. It is almost touching to notice how difficult it is to understand that the…

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Whole room disinfection: A new concept in food industry sanitation

28 February 2008 | By Dr. Karen Middleton, Technical Contracts Manager, Food Hygiene Department, Campden & Chorleywood Food Research Association, UK

During manufacture, food can be exposed to microbiological cross-contamination from surfaces and air which may give rise to food spoilage and safety issues. The traditional approach to controlling such contamination has been to target specific sites within the manufacturing environment with cleaning and disinfection regimes.

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New sanitation solution from Intralox increases conveyor hygiene

16 November 2007 | By Crystal Krummel, LID Group

Intralox, L.L.C. has announced the release of its new Series 1650 SeamFree™ Minimum Hinge Flat Top belt, the latest addition to the EZ Clean family of products. The Series 1650 SeamFree™ Minimum Hinge Flat Top belt was designed to meet the ever-increasing hygiene and sanitation requirements in food industries. With…

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Intense Light Pulse as a new food preservation process

23 May 2007 | By M. Federighi and N. Elmnasser, UMR-INRA 1014 SECALIM ENVN/ENITIAA;, F. Leroi, IFREMER, and A. & N. Orange, IUT

Food preservation implies that micro-organisms are inactivated or suppressed in order to enhance the safety and quality of the product. Alternative physical techniques aim to combine the stability and microbial safety of foods with a minimal loss of quality attributes. Because these techniques have little or no thermal effects on…

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An Achilles’ heel for hygiene

6 November 2006 | By Bo Knudsen, Segment Manager, Alfa Laval Tank Equipment A/S

When deciding which tank cleaning equipment to purchase, it is important to consider hygiene along with criteria such as effectiveness and price. The very first EHEDG-certified rotary jet head is now on the market. Cleaning-in-place (CIP) based on tank cleaning equipment is finding its way into increasing numbers of reactors,…

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Antimicrobial surfaces in the food industry

23 May 2006 | By Dr Terence Child CSci CChem FRSC, Hygiene Consultant

The application of antimicrobial surfaces in the food industry is creating considerable interest in all aspects of food processing operations.The objective of this article is to review and put into perspective the main technologies currently available for applications in this area. Fully embedded systems and surface coated systems will be…

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If you can’t kill them, control them

9 March 2006 | By Peter de Jong and Meike te Giffel, NIZO food research, The Netherlands

In the food industry the operation costs are governed by fouling. Typically, processes applied in the dairy industry that operate below 80°C are limited by adherence and growth of micro-organisms in the equipment. Above 80°C the run time is limited by deposition of proteins and minerals. Besides the limited run…

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Sanitary design principles for meat processing

9 March 2006 | By Skip Seward, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, American Meat Institute

Hygienic manufacture of food and beverage is a theme closely allied to New Food. A major contribution toward the goal of safe food production is ensuring that processing equipment is designed with this in mind. The European Hygienic Engineering Design Group (EHEDG) provide regular contributions describing their work and principles…

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Fluid flow in cleaning of closed processes

9 March 2006 | By Assistant Professor Bo Boye Busk Jensen and Associate Professor Alan Friis, Food Biotechnology and Engineering, BioCentrum-DTU

The efficiency of Cleaning-In-Place (CIP) procedures greatly depends on fluid flow (i.e. the motion of detergent and rinsing water). Thorough understanding of the physical action of fluid flow during cleaning allows for redesign of equipment and design of CIP procedures with respect to optimal cleaning characteristics. This article discusses the…

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Considering hygiene in food factories

21 November 2005 | By Mandy Drabwell, New Food

Well informed consumers demand the highest quality food, which means fresh, nutritious, safe products. It is in the manufacturers’ interest to ensure that their products reach consumers in perfect condition and that – at the very least – it is safe to consume. Of course, this feat requires careful attention…

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Dealing with decontamination

21 November 2005 | By Christian James, Food Refrigeration Process Engineering Research Centre, University of Bristol

There is no terminal step (such as cooking) to eliminate pathogenic organisms from raw meat before it reaches the consumer. The consumer is relied upon to ‘adequately’ cook the meat so that any pathogens that may be present are killed. Many studies have shown that at the time of slaughter…

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Implementing food safety and hygiene

29 July 2005 | By Dr Ken Burgess, Technical Director, Dairy Crest

Responsibility for safety from ‘farm to fork’ is obviously shared between farmers, manufacturers and processors, distributors, consumers and various government authorities. The perspective of the manufacturer is in ensuring that known food safety risks are managed and controlled, while the areas of new and emerging food safety risk have traditionally…

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Fruitful improvements in dairy hygiene

29 July 2005 | By Gun Wirtanen and Satu Salo, VTT Biotechnology, Espoo, Finland

The project ‘DairyNET – Hygiene control in dairies’ was built both on common synergy tasks performed in all Nordic countries and on national research studies. The synergy tasks dealt with rapid detection of cleaning agents and disinfectants residues, detection of organic soil in processing equipment hot spots and detection of…

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Wanted: hygienic systems integration

3 May 2005 | By Dr. Lotte Dock Steenstrup, Dr. Alan Friis, BioCentrum-DTU, The Technical University of Denmark and Dr. Roland Cocker, Cocker Consulting, Netherlands

The demands that are placed on product and process within the food production industry are interconnected. Therefore, it is not appropriate to use a largely sequential approach to designing a production facility, where you first address the primary function of the product, i.e. product quality and then consider other issues…