Steam is still the No1 heating and sterilising medium of choice in food and beverage industries.
Its green credentials coupled with immensely effective heat carrying properties make it the primary heat stream considered.
However, there is a growing trend for steam users to switch to clean steam, so lets find out why this form of steam is achieving this surge of popularity…
Plant steam is fine for applications where it doesn’t come into direct contact with the product, as well as in many applications where the product would be unaffected by low levels of contamination. However, the possibility that water treatment chemicals or other contaminants such as flakes of rust or
scale could end up in end product, for instance, is increasingly seen as unacceptable.
Many food and drink manufacturers are therefore looking to eliminate potential risk uncertainty by switching to cleaner forms of steam. It’s a move that other, high-purity operators such as pharmaceutical manufacturers, healthcare providers and electronics companies have already made, either for regulatory/guidance or product quality reasons.
Are your processes and products free from contamination?
Is the heat transfer in your processes optimized?
It may be time to take a look at your steam quality...
A Spirax Sarco white paper is available which looks at the different grades of steam available, including plant steam, filtered steam, clean steam and pure steam.
It also considers where they might be most applicable.
For instance, some food manufacturers are happy with filtered (culinary) grade steam, while others are opting for steam generated by a dedicated clean steam generator.
Finally, it considers the potential advantages of switching to clean steam, including reduced costs from product wastage and the ability to demonstrate the use of best practice to demanding customers such as supermarkets.