Dry Ice Blasting Combats food borne illnesses.
Keeping clients satisfied by supplying quality food products is not only a production manager’s objective but their passion. On top of this, the crucial undertaking of ensuring that your production area is clean and your product is free of food borne illness is essential to the success of your business. The course of action taken to clean and sanitize a production area is tightly regulated by hygiene and sanitation boards across the country and each year more funding is being allotted to prevent, identify and combat food borne illnesses. Currently the Canadian government announced it would invest 75 million dollars to strengthen Canada’s food safety system. Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz has stated that, “The Government of Canada’s highest priority is the safety of Canadians. We are making significant investments to hire more inspectors; update technologies and protocols; and, improve communication so that Canadians have the information they need to protect their families.”
Currently the most updated technology in place to battle food borne illnesses in the food service industry is Dry Ice Blasting. Dry Ice Blasting removes baked on grime and a multitude of residues from production equipment, assisting in preventing the spread of harmful bacteria such as Salmonella enteritidis, Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes. This fast, ground breaking technology has been proven to decontaminate equipment, and inhibit the spread of bacteria therefore aiding in the task to decrease the amount of food borne illnesses. The process of dry ice blasting cleans food processing equipment by removing protein residue with a blasting stream of Food Grade Dry Ice Pellets. These pellets are ideal for the food and baking industry to aide in prevention measures to decrease contamination during cleaning while eliminating hazardous build up where bacteria and mold can accumulate.
The technique is as follows: The dry ice pellets are propelled at a supersonic speed by a compressed air gun targeted at build up and residues.
Upon impact, the Dry Ice creates a micro-thermal shock (caused by the extreme cold temperature of -78.6ºC), which breaks the bond between the residue coating and the substrate. The high-pressure air stream removes grime directly from the surface, while the Dry Ice Pellets vaporize (sublimate) on contact. The Dry Ice particles are made by turning Liquid Carbon Dioxide into a snow-like substance, then compressed into hard, Food Grade Dry Ice Pellets.
When propelled at high speeds with compressed air, the Dry Ice pellets dissipate manufacturing problems and solutions on contact leaving a dry clean surface and no secondary toxic or chemical waste.
The process itself is applied by a certified contractor or technician on the spot. Other industries use this technique of cleaning because it is quick and is performed on-line without the need for disassembly of equipment. Dry Ice Blasting is non-abrasive; swiftly removing most contaminates without damage to switches, panels, lines, tubes, wiring or belts. The food grade dry ice pellets are non-toxic; and consists of the same substance used to carbonate beverages.
This innovative cleaning method has become more popular and is living up to its fame of being the industrial machinery salary most time effective, eco-friendly, and non-toxic cleaning process for industrial equipment.
