Peter Mayhew, head of sales technology at Ocme in the UK, says sanitation is very important for companies that buy filling equipment because today's manufacturing companies are very afraid of product recalls.
Michael Henderson, managing director of Breitner's representative office in the United States, Engelmann & Buckham, agreed. If the filling equipment is used for food production, its performance in terms of sanitation is not only important, but a matter of life and death. Because if the equipment can not guarantee good hygienic conditions, and the food can not be safe and hygienic during the operation, the consumer will eventually ask for a return. Especially for companies whose products are sold in supermarkets, the company's negligence in food safety can lead to serious disasters.
Of course, the degree of hygiene required for the equipment depends on the product to be filled and the shelf life that the manufacturer wants to achieve. According to Luca Colato, Sidel's Sensitive Product Manager, the hygienic design of the equipment shows different levels of skill, from “sanitary†to “super clean†to “sterileâ€, depending on each filling technique.
The difference in these different modes of hygiene is reflected in the level of sterilization when the container is sealed. Aseptically, aseptic filling is one of the most demanding filling methods. It was originally used in pharmaceutical production, but it is now increasingly used in the packaging of soft drinks. Aseptic packaging can be used to extend the shelf life of sensitive beverages, such as milk sold under ambient conditions, Luca Colato said.
Health guidelines
Luca Colato explained that a sterile production line must have many conditions. First, it must be equipped with high-pressure sterile air in the isolation chamber, filling area, and a dynamic seal that forms a vapor barrier. Secondly, the design of the equipment in terms of surface finish and closability must meet hygienic standards. Finally, there are chemical techniques and methods that enable the sterilization of packaging and equipment surfaces.
Last year, Sidel introduced a new aseptic filling device, the Sensofill FMa. The unit is easy to operate and is equipped with an osmotic unit that can process up to 70% of the rinse water. Spumador, an Italian mineral water producer, pioneered the installation of this equipment on its production line. This line will contain non-gas beverages in seven sizes of PET bottles ranging in volume from 100ml to 2l. The line fills at 24,000 bottles per hour and maintains sterility during production transitions between containers.
When performing aseptic filling of liquid medicines, companies must meet Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) requirements. According to Romaco Macofar, the main goal of this standard is to minimize the amount of particulates in the air during filling and sealing, and the structural design of the filling equipment is essential to keep the concentration of harmful microorganisms in the production area to a minimum. In order to do this, Romaco Macofar has recently introduced the VF-18 aseptic filling machine for the filling of liquid pharmaceutical products. The construction of this device is extremely compact: the danger zone (also known as the "white zone", the area through which the unsealed container passes) is compressed very narrowly, so that the bottle's contact with the air is greatly reduced, thus ensuring no The control effect of the bacterial environment. The VF-18 can fill bottles with a diameter of 14mm~68mm and a height of 35mm~140mm.
A slightly lower requirement for aseptic filling is ultra-clean filling. For food and beverage products, this filling technology can also extend the shelf life, but less than the shelf life of aseptically filled products. In addition, the cost of ultra-clean filling technology is lower than that of aseptic filling. Therefore, in the process of competition with aseptic filling systems, ultra-clean filling equipment is becoming more and more popular with beverage manufacturers. Designers of ultra-clean filling equipment have also been working to improve the health and safety of their products.
For example, Sacmi Filling Company uses the isolation unit as a standard part of all its ultra-clean filling machines. The filling area is completely isolated from the outside world, and all dirty machinery is outside the area, explains Gianluca Rossi, regional manager of the company. In addition, this series of filling machines has a CIP automatic cleaning system and may have automatic external cleaning in the future. The biggest advantage of this advantage for the production company is that the operator does not need to enter the filling area for cleaning, so the human pollution factor can be completely ruled out. Feedback from Sacmi customers shows that this ultra-clean filling machine greatly reduces product contamination.
The same security responsibility
The filling process of some non-sensitive products does not need to reach aseptic conditions. At this time, enterprises generally adopt "clean" or "standard" equipment. However, this does not mean that hygiene or cleanliness is not important. In fact, the basic design of the filling machine is the same whether it is ultra-clean or ordinary filling line.
Some types of filling machines are inherently more hygienic than other filling machines. As Adelphi's Russell Martin cites, the capacity flow metering machine has no piston to clean, so it has the shortest production conversion and cleaning time. In the filling process of such equipment, the liquid product does not need to pass through a measuring cylinder device, but directly into the container through a pressure pump or a gravity feed device.
However, Lan Hillaby, director of marketing and sales at GEA Albro, said the difference is not obvious. He said that although the capacity flow meter system has advantages in hygienic conditions, it has a lower filling accuracy than mechanical capacity filling equipment. For example, filling a 1 liter bottle, using a mechanical capacity filling machine with a piston and a measuring cylinder produces a volumetric error of less than 0.1%, and if a filling device without a mechanical measuring cylinder is used, the volume error may be as high as 0.2%.
Not only does the filling of liquid products have strict hygiene requirements, PLF offers vacuum packaging machines for the infant formula industry. In this application area, PLF believes that health and safety is critical, not only because of the product itself, but also because the consumer is a newborn baby.
In order to prevent metal from entering the product, many companies in this industry tend to choose equipment with fewer screws. On PLF equipment, the milk powder is completely transported by its own weight, so there is no need for mechanical conveying parts that come into direct contact with the product, the company's director Julia Brennan explained.
PLF has recently improved its packaging machine. The surface of the improved packaging machine is made entirely of 316 stainless steel, which can be sterilized by alcohol wiping. The outer frame of the entire equipment is sealed, and all the lubrication points that are easily brought into dust and grease are removed. It is also equipped with replacement parts to replace the parts that are removed for cleaning.
Well-known brand companies and retailers attach great importance to the safety and safety of their products. Therefore, although different products have different requirements for filling sanitary conditions, the obligations and responsibilities of equipment manufacturers in producing equipment with good sanitary conditions are not different.
Ultraviolet technology
Ocme is a pioneer in the sterilization of bottled water using UV technology. Their sales director, Peter Mayhew, explains that their leading UV technology allows them to illuminate UV light in critical areas of the filling area, such as cap threads, cap interiors, bottle finishes and filling valves. This technology can help users greatly save costs.
With the increasing use of industrial applications, UV technology may replace aseptic filling technology. Ocme has just received an order from a large UK bottling company to install UV sterilizers for customers' ultra-clean rinsing devices, filling machines and capping machines for filling 5 liter bottles.
According to Mayhew, UV sterilizers can be used in the simplest gravity level filling machines. However, gravity filling technology has certain problems, that is, it must be semi-pressurized to achieve a sealed state during filling. When the filling is completed, the device releases the container and breaks the sealed state. At this time, there is always a "click" and the container bounces back. Weighing and filling is much healthier and safer than this because there is no need to seal the container during the filling process.
Mayhew added that another advantage of Ocme's weighing filling machine is that the cleaning of its tanks and filling valves is very simple. This is because the cylinder is conical and made of stainless steel. On more traditional filling machines, the filling valves are installed inside the tank, so unless strong detergents are used, it is difficult to ensure that they are cleaned.
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