Review
Use of ozone in food industries for reducing the environmental impact of cleaning and disinfection activities

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Introduction

The interest in ozone as an alternative to chlorine and other chemical disinfectants in cleaning and disinfection operations is based on its high biocidal efficacy, wide antimicrobial spectrum, absence of by-products that are detrimental to health and the ability to generate it on demand, ‘in situ’, without needing to store it for later use.

It also has the significant advantage of being an environmentally friendly technology that reduces the company's environmental costs and facilitates their compliance with statutory obligations.

This advantage is usually underestimated by food companies, but the new environmental legislation emerging in Europe, especially the IPPC Directive 96/61/EC, will drive a change in the food industry in the next years that will increase the interest in the use of ozone. It should be taken into account that cleaning and disinfection operations are responsible for the greatest environmental impacts (water and energy consumption, wastewater, etc.) in a number of food processing plants.

The Spanish technological centre ainia is the leader of the OZONECIP project which has been recently funded by the EU LIFE Programme (LIFE 05 ENV/E/000251). This project will not only evaluate the use of ozone as a powerful disinfectant for machinery and equipment, and sanitisable surfaces in general, but also analyse the environmental advantages of ozone and its potential consideration as a Best Available Technology (BAT) for cleaning and disinfection in food processing plants.

Section snippets

Effect of the medium on the bactericidal efficacy of ozone

Ozone effectiveness against micro-organisms depends not only on the amount applied, but also on the residual ozone in the medium. Residual ozone is the concentration of ozone that can be detected in the medium after application to the target surface. Both the instability of ozone under certain conditions and the presence of ozone-consuming materials affect the level of residual ozone available in the medium. It is important, therefore, to distinguish between the concentration of applied ozone

Use of ozone to clean and disinfect surfaces and equipment

Ozone can be applied both as a gas and in ozonated water. Several studies have examined its efficacy by testing different treatments on various surfaces and micro-organisms and a number of these are listed in Table 1.

From the table it can be seen that moderate doses of ozone, between 0.5 ppm and 3.5 ppm, both in gas form and as ozonated water, are sufficient to achieve significant microbial reductions. These concentrations are potentially compatible with most plastic materials and certain types

Environmental impact of cleaning and disinfection: potential advantages of ozone

Cleaning and disinfection are essential to maintain hygienic conditions in food processing plants. However, high water and energy use and the generation of wastewaters have a significant environmental impact.

Large quantities of water are required for cleaning and disinfection in the food industry. The wastewater profile is largely dependent on production and cleaning patterns. Wine, beer and dairy processing plants installations use considerable amounts of water with the amount depending on the

Examples at industrial scale

Plumrose USA Inc. employs ozonated water for sanitising work areas and for processing equipment used for slicing and packaging ham, turkey, chicken and other meats. The company has a centralised system that produces ozonated water on demand (28 g ozone/h) and delivers it automatically to the work areas through closed piping under low pressure. As well as using ozonated water to sanitise plastic tubs and stainless steel walk-in coolers, the company also uses ozone instead of chlorine to rinse its

Equipment for ozone disinfection

Currently, three ozonation equipment suppliers have already received National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) registration of their systems for disinfecting surfaces with ozonated water. They are all identified in the NSF White Book™ Listing of Proprietary Substances and Nonfood Compounds (http://www.nsf.org/usda). As a result of this registration, food processors can consider these systems as ‘USDA approved’ for sanitation of food-contact and nonfood-contact surfaces. This is particularly

The IPPC Directive and the best available techniques

European environmental legislation is increasingly requiring polluting industries to move to clean technologies. The most important regulation in this respect is the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Directive 96/61/EC, which has considerable relevance and far-reaching effects for all European food manufacturers.

The IPPC directive attempts to encourage the Best Available Techniques (BATs). BATs are defined as techniques that enable competitive levels of quality and productivity

The LIFE PROJECT OzoneCIP

The “Ozone clean in place in food industries” project (OzoneCIP) has been funded by the EC under the LIFE-Environment Programme (LIFE 05 ENV/E/000251). This project aims to demonstrate the environmental benefits obtained by the use of Clean In Place procedures based on ozone techniques in place of the traditional techniques. Furthermore, as a result of the achievement of environmental indicators, the classification of this technology as a BAT and its widespread knowledge and implementation

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