
Coming Clean
by Lynn Petrak
Dairy processors keep plants spotless, thanks to the
latest sanitation supplies and services.
She dairy industry may
have its challenges, but one thing it has long enjoyed is a fair reputation
for cleanliness, a standing grounded in the industry’s early and
consistent focus on the safety and shelf life of its perishable products.
“Sanitation has always been important to the
dairy industry. There are very few consumers who worry about getting sick
from dairy products, and that is a credit to the industry,” says Tom
Arata, vice president of marketing for St. Paul, Minn.-based Ecolab Inc., a
global developer and marketer of cleaning, sanitizing, pest elimination,
maintenance and repair products.
David Wildes, director of sales and marketing for
Madison, Wis.-based sanitation technology supplier Sani-Matic Inc., agrees
that dairy operators have been attuned to sanitation for decades, for
personal hygiene as well as equipment and work surfaces. “Obviously,
that has always been a focus in the food industry. If you look at any food
or regulatory product, including dairy and cheese, they are very sensitive
to cleaning issues,” he says.
Mandatory and voluntary measures have contributed to
the ongoing prioritization of sanitation. “Strict industry standards
promote a higher level of quality control that has to meet quality
standards and enhances the need for a well thought out and documented
sanitation approach,” says Steven Nelson, product market specialist
for Nelson-Jameson Inc., a Marshfield, Wis.-based integrated supply source
for the sanitary processing industry.
Michele Colbert, director of sales and marketing for
Centennial, Colo.-based employee hygiene equipment supplier Meritech Inc.,
underscores the fact that the regulatory environment for dairy, stringent
for decades, continues to impact facilities. “More recently, dairy
processors have developed and incorporated a team of employees which
specialize in food safety, quality assurance, HACCP procedures, new
technology researchers,” she says. “By developing this type of
team in combination with outside private consulting firms, these dairy
processors have a much better chance of ensuring the safety of their
products to their customers. This team is also better prepared to meet the
requirements set forth by regulatory agencies.”
The industry’s longtime commitment to sanitation
notwithstanding, there have been improvements in sanitation products and
services. Some upgrades have centered on detergents and sanitizers, while
others are related to delivery systems, storage and verification programs,
among other aspects.
The availability of new technology is a driver of some
of these changes. In other cases, dairy processors’ needs and demands
are spurring new methods for keeping operations clean and (at least
relatively) simple.
For one thing, consolidation has had a ripple effect
that includes sanitation processes. “There is a strong need for
coordination across multiple plant locations and there is a unique
opportunity for us to help service plants locally and on a corporate
level,” says Kristen Gray, Ecolab’s senior market manager for
dairy.
Her colleague Arata concurs that acquisitions and
mergers have heightened the focus on sanitation processes. “Our
customers are trying to achieve synergies and consistency from plant to
plant. They are working with partners like us to transfer expertise in best
practices from plant to plant,” he says.
Nelson, too, says that the industry’s structural
shakeout has resulted in a range of effects. “Consolidation allows
for standardization and more uniformity of programs such as HACCP, GMPs,
SOPs and QA/QC, and the ability to tap into a wealth of knowledge from
multiple locations and the diversity they represent,” he says.
Another broad trend with a trickle-down effect on
sanitation is new product development. “Dairy product innovations
have accelerated. With that, you are bringing in different products and
ingredients, so having a strong sanitation partner becomes pretty
important,” Gray says, citing issues like equipment changeover and
handling of new or different ingredients.
Beyond the changing nature of the industry’s
processes and product lines, basic operational issues spur sanitation
improvements, too. “One thing that is driving the industry is margin
pressure. In today’s environment, they [processors] are looking at
pennies in a lot of areas of operation,” Wildes says. “In
clean-in-place, for example, it can translate into thousands of dollars a
week.”
Indeed, the “time is money” adage rings
ever true these days. “We are seeing efficiency improvement needs
through almost all of our customer base,” Gray says. “Offerings
that help them improve cleaning or processing time is something they are
interested in pursuing. Many of our accounts are stretched for
capacity.”
Time-Saving Systems
To help manufacturers keep operations running
efficiently and cleanly, sanitation suppliers have developed a variety of
new products, delivery systems and verification programs.
Sani-Matic, for its part, is increasingly focusing on
clean-in-place (CIP) capabilities, Wildes says. “CIP is definitely
not new in dairy but what we are trying to do is improve understanding and
education of the operating costs of these systems,” he says.
“We are finding that a lot of people in their CIP systems don’t
necessarily know the condition of it and are wasting a lot of chemicals and
water.”
To that end, Sani-Matic is providing manufacturers
with tools to optimize cycles and processes, including new data acquisition
and software packages. “We can monitor the operating cost and compare
it over time. If they can capture this information, it builds justification
for CIP or could change a system to build or change CIP,” Wildes
explains.
In addition to tracking technology, improvements geared around time and efficiency are evident in
other new types of products and services. Meritech, for instance, recently
launched a new ProTech® Walk-Through system, a high throughput system
designed to wash and sanitize the hands and boots of up to 30 employees per
minute. “The system actually washes and sanitizes hands while
sanitizing the boots or shoes at the same time,” Colbert explains.
“By combining these two procedures, our customers save labor costs
and time it takes to maintain traditional methods while ensuring each
employee is properly washed before entering the work area.”
Meritech also recently introduced a CleanTech®
Model 500EZ to the market, which provides a totally automated method of
washing and sanitizing employee hands in 10 seconds. According to Colbert,
the system was designed to be a wall-mounted installation that is
water-tight and compact in size. “This model is now Meritech’s
most cost-effective system to address the concerns of handwashing,”
she says.
Even the most basic processing and sanitation tools
can be tweaked for greater efficacy. For example, Remco Products,
Zionsville, Ind., offers a series of color coded block-and-bristle
squeegees. “If you find a chip missing from a white block, that could
come from any area in a facility. By using a color-coded block, it reduces
your tracking for the problem,” says Steve Hawhee, vice president of
sales. “It also makes it very comfortable for QA and sanitation
mangers to see from a distance whether right brush is in the right
place.”
Meanwhile, Remco’s Ultra-Hygiene line of
squeegees — which includes three styles, four widths and five colors
— features a double-bladed, fixed-head squeegee. “The head is
molded in one piece and there are no fasteners, but it has a replaceable
cartridge to sanitize the whole unit,” says Hawhee, adding that the
unit was engineered to quickly and cleanly clean and be cleaned.
Advancements Emerge
Industry demands are one thing, but available
technology is another key driver of sanitation innovation.
Nelson-Jameson, for example, regularly pursues and
incorporates new cleansers, tools and delivery systems for employee hygiene
and equipment sanitation. “We offer an expanded line of products with
antimicrobial properties built into them,” Nelson says. “We
also offer vacuum units or systems which are used for dry cleaning
applications and mechanical application equipment that save water, time and
energy as well as reducing wastewater volume.”
Ecolab, for its part, regularly invests in new
materials and capability. The company unveiled a new state-of-the-art
research and development center late last summer.
That facility already is bustling with activity. A new
sanitizer technology, with patent pending, is slated for a 2006 release,
Arata says. “We think of it as the next generation of sanitizer
technology,” he says, adding that Ecolab presented a technical paper
on the new product line at the 2005 Worldwide Food Expo. Among other
benefits, the new sanitizer utilizes electro-conductivity to allow
customers to more easily trace dosing and usage.
As suppliers invest in new technologies, they also are
keenly aware that their customers have to walk a fine line with their own
constraints. Ecolab, for example, has worked with processors in certain
geographic regions as they grapple with regional issues such as limits on
electro-conductivity or the level of certain compounds that can be
discharged in effluents. “We make continuous effort to meet and
exceed our customers’ needs through product innovations and service
advancements,” Gray says.
Other constraints are linked to operating budgets.
With that in mind, Sani-Matic recently started a leasing program for some
of its technologies. “We looked at it and realized the economic
constraints in the dairy industry. Also, energy costs continue to climb and
there are environmental issues with water,” Wildes says. “This
allows them to avoid using a capital budget.”
Lynn Petrak is a freelance journalist based in the
Chicago area.
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