Food & Beverage Industry

The food and beverage industry makes high demands on the basic substance of water. Strict legal and technical specifications must be consistently fulfilled. UV light and ozone offer various possibilities for supporting and improving product quality and production processes in an economical, risk-free and ecologically worthwhile manner. The industrial water consumption can also be decisively lowered.

In the food and beverage industry, water is needed for example for washing fruit and vegetables, for diluting fruit juices or for the production of beer, soft drinks and table water. In order to ensure a consistently high and specific product quality, the water must be free from micro-biological pollutants or certain minerals. Unwanted tastes or smells in the water can also affect product perception negatively later on. The UV disinfection and the ozone oxidation are suitable methods for reaching these challenging goals.

The great advantage of UV light and ozone in comparison to other techniques is in the environmentally friendly way in which both technologies work. No health-endangering by-products are formed in the water and the natural taste and smell of the water is also preserved.

Chemical-free disinfection without secondary effects

During disinfection with UV light, bacteria, viruses and parasites are inactivated by a photochemical reaction between the UV-C radiation and the genetic information carrier (DNA) of the pathogen within seconds. The pathogen cannot multiply any longer and dies. Since this is a purely physical technique, no harmful or unwanted products or by-products are formed as with disinfection with chemical additives.

Oxidation with ozone

Ozone is an effective alternative to conventional disinfectants. When ozone comes into contact with microorganisms, it oxidises their cell membrane and causes the cells concerned to destruct through osmotic dissolution. Ozone thus works actively against bacteria, mould and viruses. Even unwanted substances such as iron, manganese or humins are destroyed with ozone. Since ozone “only” consists of three oxygen atoms, only oxygen is formed as a by-product after the oxidation process.

Overview of all Ozone and UV applications
Branche	Application	Ozone	UV
Food industry	Product water disinfection	•	•
	Recycling water	•	•
	Product washing	•
Dairies	Disinfection of vapor condensate	•	•
	Water disinfection	•	•
	CIP Process (Cleaning in Place)	•
	Head space disinfection of fluid tanks		•
Beverage industry	Water Disinfection	•	•
	Liquid sugar disinfection		•
	Elimination of iron and manganese in raw water	•
	Juice disinfection		•
	Bottle washing	•
	CIP Process (Cleaning in Place)	•
	Sealing cap disinfection	•	•
	Surface sanitation of machineries and equipment	•	•
	Stabilization of still water	•
	Head space disinfection of fluid tanks		•

Lower your actual water requirement

Often, there is a by far larger water requirement for cleaning and rinsing processes than is in the products themselves. The intensive cleaning of production plants, pipelines, bottles and sealing caps requires large amounts of aseptic drinking water. Thanks to the chemical-free way in which UV light and ozone work, they are able to lower the consumption of cleaning and rinsing water considerably: In the CIP technique (Cleaning in Place) for example, rinsing to remove chemical residue becomes unnecessary with ozone or industrial water can be used a number of times with UV disinfection.

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