Sanitising environments
Food companies must establish and implement food safety programmes based on HACCP principles, in particular for controlling the proliferation of bacteria, moulds, fungi and other microorganisms. The sanitisation technologies, services and products offered by SOL make it possible to prevent and control biological risk in production environments, including the various machinery and equipment contained therein.
The sanitisation service originated from findings showing that the shelf life of foods, even when packaged using certified-quality gas mixtures, can be compromised if the production environment does not meet the hygiene requirements of European Regulation 852/2004: a sanitised and controlled environment makes it possible to produce food in greater safety by avoiding batches which, if produced in poor environmental conditions, could develop moulds for example, thus shortening product life and entailing a considerable risk of returns, with the consequent financial and reputational damage this could lead to.
Sanitisation by nebulising biocide products in a liquid state, leaving no residues in the environment and maintaining environments healthy through filtering with SOL plant, makes it possible to maintain a high level of production quality and food safety with limited investment and running costs.
It is also possible to use ozone as a biocide to keep equipment and work areas clean, in order to prevent the cross-contamination of food and the subsequent risk of food-borne diseases. One major concern is the formation of biofilms on food processing equipment. Biofilms are simply layers of microorganisms bound tightly to a surface, and if a surface is not properly cleaned and sanitized then these microorganisms can aggregate and form biofilms. Ozone can be used on knives, saws, table-tops, conveyor belts and packaging materials.