Air Treatment for the Food Industry:
Photoclean, a decontamination expert at your side
Significant economic and health challenges weigh on the food industry. However, the buildings housing production facilities are susceptible to air contamination from a variety of chemical compounds and microorganisms.
Mold, yeast, bacteria, and odors can alter the taste and appearance of food products, or even render them unfit for consumption, resulting in significant financial and human costs.
For this reason, air treatment in the food industry is essential to protect your production.
Photoclean, a specialist in microbiological and chemical air decontamination for manufacturers in the sector, offers you a customized solution tailored to your facilities, regardless of their size or layout.
Causes of Contamination in the Food Industry
Air contamination inside food industry facilities can have several causes:
- Building insulation and airtightness, which create areas of condensation (moisture promotes the growth of mold)
- Daily cleaning of the premises with hot water requires rapid drying through extraction, but this can allow stale air to enter from outside if there is no suitable air treatment solution in place
- In bakeries and pastry shops, the cooling phase tends to increase fungal contamination due to the products’ water content.
- Ethylene in the air
- …
The Different Types of Contaminants
and the Challenges of Air Decontamination
There are two main types of contaminants found inthe food industry:
Microbiological contaminants (microorganisms)
They will cause the product to deteriorate, leading to changes in taste, appearance, texture, color, or odor.
Pathogenic Microbiological Contaminants
They cause food poisoning (sometimes severe): Listeria, E. coli, Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium….
They can be found across all sectors of the food industry:
meat, fish, and seafood; dairy products; pastries and baked goods; fruits and vegetables; wines…
Depending on the type of operation, several issues may arise regarding air treatment in the food industry:
- Certain products (such as cheese or yogurt) are inoculated with microorganisms so that they can grow in them. These microorganisms must be protected… while preventing other microorganisms from proliferating.
- The product itself can be a source of contamination
- Cooked or frozen products are “decontaminated” through this process. It is essential to prevent them from becoming recontaminated until they are packaged.
- Moisture is a source of contamination… but it is difficult to reduce, given that low ambient temperatures are generally required for the production or storage of food products
- …
That is why it is important to have a customized solution.
A unique UV decontamination solution with Photoclean
Photoclean Quartz offers its customers a unique air decontamination solution for the food industry. Drawing on our extensive experience in the food industry, we have developed a comprehensive line of UV-C units that operate on the principle of photolysis—a natural chemical reaction that destroys contaminants by oxidizing them—and provide complete food industry disinfection.
Because our technology directly targets microbiological and chemical contaminants in the air rather than inert particles, the devices have low energy consumption and compact dimensions, since they exert less pressure on the air. In fact, on average, there is 1 contaminant for every 1,000 inert particles! They also eliminate odors caused by food contamination.
Our units—which include standalone decontamination modules as well as universal modules that can be integrated into any air handling unit—operate continuously without human intervention. Installed in areas that are rarely or never treated, they process the entire air volume of your building—including very large volumes—between 5 and 20 times per hour.
To ensure optimal performance and a solution tailored to the specific demands of your business, Photoclean visits your site and conducts a comprehensive on-site audit to identify the challenges you face. Our in-house engineering department then conducts a customized study to determine the most suitable solution, the models to be used, their layout, and their placement within the space…
We provide you with all the blueprints and manufacture custom decontamination units to precisely meet your needs for food industry filtration and facilitate the system’s installation by your designated service provider. We can contact your project manager regarding this matter.
Many companies in the food industry turn to us every year to implement the necessary measures to protect their production.
Would you like to use our services? Do you have any questions? We’re here to help!