When it comes to processing fresh-cut produce, one element is just as important as the produce itself.
Water.
It rinses and sanitizes every step of the way. But even Mother Nature needs a little help to make the process more effective and avoid cross-contamination. Companies serving the fresh-cut and other industries are constantly looking at ways to improve the process.
Axiall Corp. is one of them. The result of a January merger between Georgia Gulf and the chemicals business of PPG Industries, Axiall is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga. Its Accu-Tab Tablet Chlorination Systems have been filling a growing niche over the past decade among fresh-cut processors seeking an alternative to bleach and chlorine gas – bleach because of issues with spills and containment and gas because of potential hazards.
“Accu-Tab started in pools and then we started branching out into various industries that need water treatment – municipal drinking systems, poultry and the next step was irrigation, food packing and processing,” said Brian T. Newsome, industrial market manager for Axiall Corp. – Water Treatment. “To grow our business, we always look for adjacent markets where water disinfection is important.”
For example, tomato growers who were using Accu-Tab in their irrigation water to address potential iron, e coli and salmonella issues saw opportunities to use the system in their packinghouses. The same approach was taken with spinach.
“Our spinach customers who were doing irrigation, they were obviously looking for water treatment in their fresh-cut operation,” Newsome said. “That’s how we ended up participating in the fresh-cut market.”
The Accu-Tab system utilizes slow-release tablets with specially designed chlorinators to treat water.
“When you combine AccuTab three-inch calcium hypochlorite tablets with the AccuTab chlorinators, customers erode the tablets to create a hypochlorinated solution,” Newsome explained. “That solution is then injected into a fresh-cut line that’s washing the vegetables or produce that’s being processed.”
“In the fresh-cut market, it’s more about preserving cross-contamination. Cross contamination is what can spread deadly bacteria from one bad apple to another.”
Axiall works with operations of all sizes.
“We can handle very small packing lines … and we’re doing some packing lines that are hundreds of gallons per minute,” Newsome said.
AquaPulse Systems
For California-based AquaPulse Systems, it’s not so much about what companies use to treat their water, but how. AquaPulse provides continuous monitoring and control systems to treat water with the sanitizer of a processor’s choice, said president Karan Khurana.
“It doesn’t matter what they choose to use … we would make automation systems or control systems to manage the water chemistry,” Khurana said. “Most of the fresh-cut processors have our equipment. Anyone you can think of, they probably have it.”
The systems automatically record data.
“All of our systems today … generate reports with dates and times and charts and graphs so anybody can look at it and see how well the water system has been treated,” Khurana said.
And systems are tailored to individual operations.
“The type of wash design can be unique to each account or each user, the equipment, the wash tank itself,” Khurana said. “Sometimes they have a closed flume, sometimes they have open flume, sometimes they’re spray washing, sometimes there are cascading waters. Different manufacturers have different designs so they have different contact times.
“We need to make sure our system is able to treat the water from a food safety point of view, and coordinate the variations in each design, so that at any given time, the water is perfectly clean.”
The company works with regulatory agencies, buyers’ groups and academia to keep up to date on the latest research. And two years ago, Aqua Pulse Systems rolled out a new technology for sanitizing water with chlorine dioxide before it ever enters a plant.
“We treat all of the incoming water to the whole plant, not in flumes, but in the entire water system of the whole facility,” Khurana said. “When you put in a small dose of chlorine dioxide into the water system … it’s able to clean biofilms in the system, which are everywhere. And biofilms trap bacteria that trap pathogens that trap microbes. They build up in the environment of the facility throughout the production day.
“Having a small dose of chlorine dioxide in the incoming water is very effective in lowering the environmental bacteria throughout the plant, but it’s at a safe level. Now, wherever water goes, you’ve got a little bit of treatment in there: equipment surfaces, conveyor belts, floors, everywhere it goes.”
So far, about 100 customers have implemented the systems, and the numbers are growing.
“We’re putting in almost 30 to 50 systems a year,” Khurana said. “Our incoming water system has been extremely well accepted and well applied throughout the industry.”
Both companies say proposed Food Safety Modernization Act rules will only help create opportunity for those in their industry.
“We feel with the advent of the proposed FSMA, more companies – more packing houses and fresh-cut processors – are going to be looking for technologies that simplify and sanitize their product,” Newsome said. “The growth we see is that there’s an opportunity for producers and fresh-cut processors to meet or exceed stan.
