Challenge
A large manufacturer of meat products based in Holland cooks hot dogs, sausages, and hamburgers in large water vats in a continuous process. Cooking water is maintained 90 to 95°C by circulation through spiral heat exchangers. Organic matter from the meats (fat, proteins, carbohydrates) slowly accumulates in the baths and coagulates. It subsequently forms carbonized deposits on the bottom of the baths and in the spiral heat exchangers. These disintegrate to yield large quantities of black particles suspended in the water, which then tend to adhere to the meat products and spoil product appearance.
Despite frequent changes of cooking water and system cleaning, complete prevention of product contamination could only be achieved by utilizing a hot water spray rinsing stage after the cooking baths.
This process required:
- Large quantities of hot rinsing water
- Inordinate amounts of time spent cleaning
- Production cycles limited to 60 hours
- Continuous visual inspections
The manufacturer wanted to extend the production cycle from Monday morning until Friday evening and reduce the amount of hot water needed for rinsing without detrimental effects to product quality.
Solution
After a thorough process survey, Veolia proposed using FoodPro DCF9834 as a dispersant for the organic matter accumulating in the cooking baths.
After initial laboratory testing and organoleptic evaluations had confirmed no influence on product taste and appearance, several pilot trials were performed to optimize product dose level, feed equipment, and injection point.
Subsequently, after a series of production trials, the optimum treatment was identified as FoodPro DCF9834 concentration of 200 ppm in the hot water bath, combined with the cooking water controlled at pH 7.
Result
Trial yields the following results:
- Dispersion of organic matter resulting in reduced fouling of the bath and heat exchangers.
- Hot water rinsing only required on Fridays.
- Production cycle extended to a full working week.
- Reduced cleaning frequency to every weekend
- Ease of cleaning as any deposits formed was now easy to remove
The use of FoodPro DCF9834 made it possible to increase production by 7% and to reduce cleaning costs.
Hot water consumption for rinsing was reduced by 75% resulting in significant energy savings.