FEATURE
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Refrigeration is necessary for the manufacture of some products and is useful for things such
as fermentation control in breweries. Taken at Samagu Brewery.
“Maintenance is very important,”
says Amschwand. “The first step in
improving efficiency in an existing plant
is to re-commission it to the initial design
requirements. Lack of maintenance leads
to poor efficiency.”
“Maintenance is absolutely critical,”
agrees Kriel. “Poor maintenance results in
high energy consumption (representing
55–80% of life cycle cost), poor reliability and
resultant product losses, poor temperature,
and humidity control with resultant safety
issues. It is just all bad if one neglects
maintenance.” With the increase in systems’
data, it should be possible to monitor
refrigeration systems better and know
when trends are showing a deterioration
in performance or reliability. Often, owners
do not understand what to do with all the
data that is now available and it ends
up in file 13. “I believe that maintenance
will become a specialist field where data
analysis and artificial intelligence will play an
important role in how we maintain systems
and deploy our scarce resources such as
good, qualified technicians.”
“Maintenance is critical to keeping
a plant working at optimum efficiency,”
says Van der Merwe. “In particular,
planned maintenance will reduce the
unexpected breakdowns. Breakdown
maintenance is not an ideal way to
run a plant.” Breakdowns will affect
production, and the cost of not achieving
the required production volumes or the
cost of reducing the shelf life on products
is not often quantified. If an office air
conditioner breaks down, the people
suffer for a couple of hours/days and
the work generally continues, but if the
refrigeration breaks down, then there can
be considerable product losses and falling
behind on deliveries with a detrimental
effect to the business.
GLOBAL PACKAGING TRENDS packaged foods gained popularity
alongside fresh products.
Humankind has been processing
food to extend its shelf life for centuries
(examples include salted and dried
meats), but as new techniques were
developed to manufacture ready-
to-eat and ready-to-cook foods, a
growing need emerged for individual
product packaging. In the same period,
supermarkets started to appear where
customers selected products from shelves
instead of being personally served.
These trends were driving forces for
automated food packaging technology
— an industry that kicked off in the 1950s
already internationally.
Packaging has changed a lot over
the years — and will continue to do so in
future … Where are we headed?
The 20th century witnessed a major
shift in eating habits as processed and The food packaging industry is notoriously
competitive, resulting in a constant state
Also, it is important to have a proper
alarm system that will tell the client when
something has gone wrong, advises
Walter. This is missing most of the time. “It’s
more costly to put in a more sophisticated
alarm system but this is vital to know when
there is a problem and prevent food
losses and massive breakdowns.”
It is useful to oversize a refrigeration
system so it doesn’t run so hard and lasts
longer, says Walter. “Buy the right quality
of products.” You have to ensure that
contractors are competent and know
what they are doing. “Also, as mentioned,
if it’s a critical or a high-value product, put
in two systems with a redundancy.”
Kriel’s advice? “Get a specialist with
the track record to assist you.”
Unfortunately, maintenance is often
not being prioritised locally, says Walter.
Generally, proactive maintenance is
neglected, leading to reactive call-outs.
“Is maintenance important? It is,” says
Walter. “If you’re storing a lot of product
you can’t go out of a range, this is
vital.” Especially for clients who rent out
cold storage space. They are liable for
damages if room temperatures go out
of range.
Temperature logging systems are key
to track a product through the cold chain.
Once the product goes out of temperature
range, you will be at risk of losing product,
says Walter.
Maintenance not being done is often
a cost that is not allowed for. The client
isn’t willing to pay for regular maintenance
contracts and ends up with breakdowns.
For high-risk clients, they should really
have a competent refrigeration person
on site permanently, recommends Walter.
Especially for pharmaceuticals with millions
of rands in sensitive stock.
The frequency of the maintenance
intervals will depend on the product and
the risk, says Walter. Also, freezers require
more maintenance than chillers; freezers
require monthly maintenance and should
be inspected daily.
A WORD OF ADVICE
It is important to understand what you
need in terms of cooling and then be
prepared to install a well-designed system
to achieve those requirements, advises Van
der Merwe. “If there is a budget constraint,
rather refrigerate smaller areas correctly
than compromise and refrigerate larger
areas poorly.”
MAINTENANCE MATTERS
When packing table grapes, the temperature and humidity must also be controlled to
ensure the product lasts longer and doesn’t sweat, potentially causing mould.
Without proper refrigeration during processing, especially for highly perishable products such
as fish, health and safety issues can become a major concern. (Taken at a fish processing
plant in Iceland.)
COLD LINK AFRICA • May 2019
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
43