How can Ozone be incorporated into food processing operations to meet the Canada Food Inspection Agency requirements?
Ozone, approved for use as a disinfectant, would be part of the cleaning process to help lessen chemicals (but likely not eliminate them). For sanitation, ozone is typically used as a cold-water final rinse sanitation following the other cleaning steps in place of hot water and chemicals. Ozone costs less to use, reduces operational time, electricity and chemical use and helps to improve the wastewater quality. In some cases, this sanitizing water can be also be reused. Rinsing products with ozone can help extend shelf-life and microbiological quality without risk of impacting the product. Ozone is all natural and the most environmentally friendly disinfection option available.
The most important consideration is the amount of ozone in the water to be used and how to regulate and monitor that either manually or automatically. The government sets limits for maximum ozone levels based on parts per million (ppm or mg/l) of ozone dissolved into the water and will vary by application. Surface cleaning for example has a maximum of 2ppm of dissolved ozone is allowed to come into contact. We offer practical ways to regulate this ozone dose with an inline dissolved ozone monitor with feedback that will automatically increase or decrease ozone to maintain the set level. This provides automatic adjustment of ozone if there are changes in flow or water quality without requiring manual modifications.
For lower flow and facilities not able to automate the process, the alternative is a handheld tester (Ozone Colour Wheel) that takes samples to determine the dissolved ozone level; if the water conditions and flow are consistent then the ozone dose can be set manually to be within regulatory levels backed with regular checks and data logging.
Our team works closely with our clients to ensure the right system design to meet the specific sanitation, flow and treatment needs for using ozone in these applications. We have a standard “Letter of No Objection” from Health Canada (Chemical Bureau of Standards) for use of our system and provide consultation and support to ensure success.