Food & Drink Processing & Packaging Issue 49 2023 | Page 28

Hygienic cordial transfer pump

In our latest case study we were tasked with supplying a manufacturer of liquid filling machines who contacted North Ridge looking for a robust pump of a proven hygienic design . This was to be used for batch filling small cartons of squash or cordial on their liquid filling machines .
A filling machine or liquid dispensing machine is a device for filling containers , such as bottles or jars with a measured amount of liquid in an accurate , repeatable way . They are used for a wide range of products including liquids for human consumption such as milk , water , cordial , carbonated drinks , edible oils , medicinal syrups , e-liquids and alcoholic beverages .
What makes a pump hygienic ?
Our client wanted a hygienic pump - but what makes a pump hygienic ? There are many features
28 FDPP - www . fdpp . co . uk that define a hygienic pump depending on the application and type of fluid that ’ s being pumped .
For example , some fluids being pumped are then going to be cooked or heated up . These pumps will need different hygiene standards to pumps used to pump liquids for direct human consumption or for pharmaceutical applications such as eye solutions , where bacteria must be kept to an absolute minimum . These will demand the very highest hygiene standards .
What are these hygienic features ? Polishing
Polishing of pumps makes absolutely sure that there ’ s no roughness , debris or dead zones where bacteria can gather and multiply , or where particles could come loose potentially contaminating future batches .
Hygienic pumps are highly polished to ensure that the surface level is less than 0.5mm microns . This makes them easy to clean especially using CIP and SIP processes . CIP is short for Clean-In-Place , a cleaning method which enables the internal surfaces of sealed systems to be cleaned , without removing or disassembling piping or equipment to carry out the cleaning .
SIP is Sterilisation-In-Place which extends the CIP process by adding sterilisation , without any need for disassembling the liquid dispensing machine , piping or measuring equipment . This takes place at the end of CIP and ensures that any microorganisms still active in the system are killed off with hot water , or with saturated pure steam at high temperatures of over 121 ° C .