Radical has developed a practical sanitising solution which does not use harmful chemicals in its processes but delivers an unequalled kill rate on bacteria.

Hygiene managers in food processing plants are constantly battling to prevent a wide range of potentially harmful micro-organisms from contaminating products. A variety of sanitising chemicals have been traditionally used to systematically disinfect all aspects of the manufacturing environment from walls, floors, surfaces and equipment right through to the product itself.

One of the biggest issues currently facing the food processing industry is that most high care areas largely continue to rely on a range of chemicals, including various forms of chlorine (chlorine dioxide, sodium hypochlorite etc.), branded forms of quaternary ammonium compounds and even bromine or iodine based products, to maintain an acceptable hygiene regime. The long-term use of some of these products is now beginning to come under close scrutiny from the environmental lobby.

The sanitising power of these chemicals is not in dispute but the residual effects are now increasingly under scrutiny.

Potential side-effects and significant limitations mean that the use of these chemical-based antimicrobial and biocidal processes is being limited by the EU and US FDA and dramatically reducing the sanitising options available to the

industry. The industry needs a viable alternative and there is one sanitising system that can no longer be ignored.

Processes utilising ozone as an oxidising agent have over a long period of time consistently demonstrated the superior killing power needed to meet the industry’s strict standards, but have in the past been poorly controlled and difficult to deploy in a modern food processing environment.

Steritroxing, for the first time, enables the full force of a free radical based technology to be deployed safely and efficiently – bringing the full power of the process to modern food production facilities.

The use of ozone as a sanitiser is not a new technology and has been used widely in the past. However, the problem has always been managing the ozone system to deliver a controlled killing action that fits in with the stringent operational environment that is essential in a modern food production facility.

After an intensive research programme, the Radical range of sanitising equipment has been developed to address these issues head-on, providing a fully controlled system that delivers the enhanced microbial killing power associated with Advanced Oxidation without the need for extended production down-time previously experienced with ozone-based fogging systems.

Steritroxing actively controls the production of a free radical rich vapour that quickly and deeply permeates all elements within the production area with a highly effective biocidal atmosphere. Having done so, the process introduces a unique program that quickly and safely removes the vapours from the room, enabling a fast return to production.

The Steritroxing process is automatically controlled by a touch-screen computer system mounted either onboard or remotely to the Radical equipment. The control system transforms naturally occurring elements contained within the air into a highly reactive vapour which is rich in free radicals. The process is fuelled from water and either compressed air or an oxygen source, together with a unique quenching agent.

Once the sanitising programme has started and the operator leaves the room, the Steritroxing Vapour diffuses into every corner, bathing all exposed surfaces and penetrating even hidden areas such as machinery, drains and air conditioning vents.

The atmosphere is sustained for a short period of time, during which time both airborne and surface contaminants are destroyed. The vapour in the atmosphere is then neutralised using the unique quenching agent. Removal of all residual vapours makes it safe to enter the room within a few minutes of the process finishing.

By Steritroxing, the operator has complete control over the sanitising process and in most cases means the entire procedure takes less than an hour from start to finish.

Proven Technology

Trials throughout food production facilities across the UK and independent analysis at Campden and Chorleywood Food Research Association and Manchester University over a range of eight major organisms clearly proved Steritroxing to be extremely effective, efficient and robust. The systems have now been in use in operational conditions for three years proving totally effective in providing bio-security in food processing facilities.

An example of this is a major Midlands-based food processing company that recently installed a system to sanitise its production facility – the following results speak for themselves.

In a production area of approximately 1800 cubic metres in size full of typical production equipment, Steritroxing is completed in well under one hour. The company faced the issues of a potentially constant attack by a range of harmful micro-organisms including Listeria that need to be eradicated and managed to maintain high levels of bio-security within the factory environment. Figure 1 shows the actual results over the first five consecutive days of Steritroxing their high-care food preparation unit. Total Viable Count (TVC) swabs were taken at a number of high risk locations immediately before and after Steritroxing on each day and sent to an independent UKAS registered laboratory for processing.

The data clearly illustrates that on a day-to- day basis a high level of microbial eradication was achieved. More importantly however, within five days of the initial application

of Steritroxing, the background micro activity was dramatically improving as the penetrative action of Steritroxing permeated into previously hard-to-get-to places and progressively attacked the biofilm in the room itself.

Three instances of Listeria were found on each of the first three nights of treatment. All were eradicated on each occurrence and significantly the hitherto persistent infection did not reoccur on days four, five and onwards.

Click here for a real life case study which demonstrates Radical in action