I am a chemical engineer and an enthusiast on environmental and industrial services. He writes extensively on newer technologies and eco-friendly methods of cleaning such as dry ice blasting. Everyday food industry deals with the challenge of
maintaining hygiene standards and cleanliness. The equipment utilized in this
industry needs to be perfectly clean in order to maximize the production
capacity and to reduce the chances of accidents occurring due to poor
maintenance.
In this process, dry ice pellets can get to the parts of
equipments which are difficult to reach. In other methods, you cannot even
dream of accessing such areas. Since dry ice pellets manage to reach every nook
and corner of the equipments; it cleans more deeply and effectively. CO2
blasting efficiently removes adhesive, carbon build-up, grease, paper dust, and
glue from various equipments such as:
Ovens
Chocolate Moulds
Filters
Mixing equipments
Slicing equipments
Frying and Processing equipments
Bread and Pastry equipments
Waffle Irons
The best part of dry ice cleaning is that equipments are
cleaned on the site itself. There is no headache of taking the machinery to some
other place for cleaning.
While cleaning, other methods can damage the equipment to
some extent but in dry ice cleaning, you can rest assured that nothing will happen
to the equipment. It uses CO2 which sublimates and turns to gaseous
state the moment it comes in contact with the surface.
Though CO2
blasting is used for various
industries such as printing, aerospace, automotive, packaging etc but for food
and beverage industry, it is highly beneficial since it is completely
non-toxic. Unlike other methods, it doesn’t make use of any chemicals,
solvents, sanitizers or detergents. It uses harmless CO2 pellets.
The other reason why dry ice blasting is the ideal choice
for food industry is that it doesn’t involve the use of water in its cleaning
process. This is useful especially when the equipment is sensitive to water.
The added advantage of dry ice cleaning is that it doesn’t
generate any extra waste while cleaning. The only waste that gets generated is
the one from the cleaning site itself.
Dry ice also destroys and retards the growth of fungus and
bacteria such as salmonella and listeria, as it’s temperature is at -109
degrees F. At this temperature, all the bacteria and fungi present in the
equipments get killed.