Food and beverage topics and FAQ
Food and beverage topics and FAQ | CIP BPRV | hygiene regulations | pressure reducing | NFC juice
This page deals with typical topics and FAQ of the food and beverage industry, such as pressure reducing of nitrogen for NFC juice, CIP BPRV or the high hygiene regulations.
What is food and beverage?
In the industrial production of food and drinks, most of the processing operations employ water, oil or steam as energy carriers. Here the cooking, drying or cooling take place in closed systems. All of these processes are governed by a range of extremely stringent quality and hygiene regulations.
A suitable industrial valve is available for each of these production facilities. The demands placed on such plants are just as different as the products themselves to be processed. International aseptic standards apply, extreme temperatures occur and highly viscous or heavily corrosive media must be handled. The challenge for self-acting control valves is to optimize the production processes and all cleaning procedures simultaneously. Their resistance to acids, brines and temperatures as well as tightness and easy maintenance should at all times be ensured.
It is ideal when industrial valves for the food and beverage industry are made of high-quality stainless steel 1.4404 / 316L to meet these high demands.
This is what we understand by the food and beverage industry. Read more applications, on www.mankenberg.com.
An application about NFC juice and tank blanketing
NFC means “not from concentrate”. Thus it is about freshly squeezed juices that cause a lot of trouble. Fermentation starts much faster with nfc juice than with juice concentrates. NFC juice has a significantly higher water content and therefore also oxygen content. Oxygen, heat and sugar, that is what a fruit juice needs for fermentation.
Customers often appreciate the taste and purity of nfc juice. For this reason, every effort is taken to transport it.
Before we start writing long texts, we would simply like to show you a case study from which you can draw all the important information.
Read an interesting application about the distribution of NFC juice with tank blanketing:
Self-acting pressure reducing valves
Self-acting pressure reducing valves reduce a high and frequently fluctuating pressure to an adjustable constant pressure downstream of the valve. A spring (optionally a gas spring or weight) keeps the valve open and this closes as the outlet pressure rises. It protects all the devices, valves and installations situated downstream of excessive pressure build-up, simultaneously the consumption is reduced and the flow velocity and noise are minimised. The outlet pressure acts through the control element (diaphragm, piston or bellow) onto the cone and, in the event of rising outlet pressure, proportionally closes the valve. The pressure to be controlled can be adjusted by a pre-tensioned / relieved spring through an adjusting screw.
However, this is only a tiny part to report on self-acting pressure reducing valves. Read everything important on this topic here.
General function of pressure reduction
CIP BPRV
Learn more about the CIP BPRV and also about batch processes as well as the SIP process.
- PRV = pressure reducing valve
- BPRV = back pressure regulating valve
- CIP = cleaning in place
- SIP = sterilisation in place
Batch process
Food and beverage production mainly requires plants that work according to the so-called batch process. This means that the plant does not work constantly but it only processes single production batches. In principle, these plants consist of two units, the production and the filling plant.
For this purpose, the basic substance is generally mixed in a boiler according to a specific recipe. Whilst in the food industry the admixture of individual, partly solid ingredients is often done manually, it is generally automatised in the beverage industry. Subsequently, the composition/batch is delivered to the bottling unit and it is essential to clean and sterilise by CIP and SIP the boiler and the lines used for the supply of the invididual components.
This is important in order to fulfill the stringent requirements for the production of food and to offer safe food to the consumer. Since the plant is in general used for various recipes, cleaning is mandatory to avoid that the different recipes mix up with each other.
Requirements for self-acting CIP BPRV
To perform CIP in earlier times, everything had to be disassembled and washed. However, this procedure that everyone of us knows from his own kitchen is very time consuming and costly. To reduce cleaning and sterilisation times of the plants, these and their components are designed in such a way that cleaning and sterilisation are possible in fully assembled condition, as for ex. with CIP BPRV.
For this purpose, the plant, i.e. all piping including all self-acting control valves and other components, is flushed with the aid of a cleaning solution. This is called the CIP (Cleaning in Place) process. To ensure that this process functions reliably, it is necessary to design the plant and all components, such as the CIP BPRV in the secondary process, accordingly.
This means in detail that the self-acting CIP BPRV must be virtually free from dead spaces and capable of draining completely. Consequently, all parts of the plant must be designed in accordance with fluidic aspects in order to eliminate the mentioned dead spaces where dirt and germs may settle. If required, the cleaning agent must have a minimal flow velocity within the components and the pipelines. That is the only way of ensuring that any contamination will be flushed away with the cleaning agent. In addition, all wetted surfaces must have the suitable surface roughness. Studies have shown that a Ra value around 0.6 µm (roughness in micrometer) is optimal. Rougher surfaces would feature too many and too deep niches. Minimising the real effective surface will offer smaller contact surfaces to the contaminants. Both, a design free from dead spaces and well polished surfaces, are the basis for a safe CIP process.
SIP BPRV and PRV
The plant is sterilised after cleaning. For this purpose, it is steam-heated to more than 120 °C for approx. half an hour in order to kill the possibly remaining germs. Two conditions must be fulfilled to have this process step performed as fast as possible. Firstly, the mass of the parts to be heated should be as low as possible in order to keep the heating time of the plant very short. Secondly, all the valves must be in open position so that the pressure loss of the used steam is kept as low as possible. High pressure loss means energy loss. This can also be achieved with self-acting SIP BPRV and PRV, for ex. through compressed air impact.
The six most important food and beverage hygiene regulations
1. USP Class VI
This applies to the testing of elastomers. The polymers are divided into classes by various test procedures. The United States Pharmacopeia Convention (USP) Class VI is the highest class. During the test procedures, a plastic is exposed to different extraction temperatures (50 °C, 70 °C, 121 °C). In addition, the materials are tested on animals for harmfulness. Of course, certain limit values must not be exceeded.
2. 3-A Sanitary
The 3-A Sanitary Standards Inc. (3-A SSI) has written guidelines that ensure hygienic design for plants and plant components and the use of suitable materials in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical industries. If the requirements of 3-A SSI are met, a company can have its products and systems certified according to 3-A SSI.
3. FDA
The FDA is the Food and Drug Administration, an agency of the United States of America. It draws up consumer protection guidelines for the areas of food, medicines and cosmetics. These guidelines, called Code of Federal Regulations, are only valid for the USA. However, they are also recognized in non-American countries. For example, various DIN standards quote § 21 of the Code of Federal Regulation (21CFR177.2600 “Rubber articles intended for repeated use”) and refer to a positive list for plastics listed there. FDA conformities are not approved by the FDA. The manufacturer himself is responsible for compliance with the regulation himself and must also document it independently.
4. EHEDG
The European Hygienic Engineering & Design Group (EHEDG) consists of research institutes, food producers and machine and plant manufacturers. This grouping develops guidelines describing the hygienic requirements for the food industry. It usually involves the design of equipment, apparatus and plant components. These guidelines are intended to be an EU-wide concept for action in compliance with legal requirements.
The EHEDG enables institutions that are subsequently authorized to certify plants and machines according to EHEDG. A certificate is renewed for one year and must be newly issuded after five years. Due to strongly similar objectives, there are many interfaces between the EHEDG guidelines and the 3-A SSI.
5. ADI
Animal Derived Ingredients (ADI) refers to elastomers and complete components. For ADI conformity, components and elastomers must be free of animal residues. Therefore, no lubricants containing animal components may be used in the manufacture of an elastomer. The aim of freedom from ADI is to avoid contamination by BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) and TSE (Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy). Therefore, in the food and pharmaceutical industries, the requirement for freedom from ADI is often also referred to as TSE/BSE-free.
6. Hygiene classes according to surface quality
The hygiene classes in Germany refer to the pipe standards DIN 11850, DIN 11866 and ISO 1127, which are comparable to ASME BPE (Bio-Processing Equipment). The hygiene classes (H) are differentiated according to the surface quality of a system component, for example an industrial valve. The scale ranges from 1 to 5, where 5 is the best value. In addition, a distinction is made between inner surfaces and the seam area.
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