Food Packaging

UV technology is particularly suited to the beverage, bottled water and food processing sectors, where extremely high standard of hygiene are expected. Contamination of the process at any point by pathogenic or spoilage microorganisms can have extremely serious consequences for manufacturers. Effective microbial disinfection of the whole process is therefore essential.

UV is rapidly gaining acceptance across the whole spectrum of food and beverage industries as a highly efficient, non-chemical method of disinfection. UV kills all known pathogenic and food spoilage microorganisms, including bacteria (including Cryptosporidium and Giardia) viruses, yeasts and molds (and their spores). It is a low maintenance, environmentally friendly technology which eliminates the need for chemical treatment while ensuring very high levels of disinfection.

Benefits of UV disinfection

UV disinfection has many advantages over alternative methods. Unlike chemical biocides, UV does not introduce toxins or residues into the process (which themselves have to be subsequently removed) and does not alter the chemical composition, taste, odor or pH of the product.

UV treatment can be used for primary disinfection or as a back-up for other treatment methods such as carbon filtration, reverse osmosis or pasteurization. As UV has no residual effect, the best position for a treatment system is immediately prior to the point of use. This ensures incoming microbiological contaminants are destroyed and there is a minimal chance of post-treatment contamination.

Increasingly high standards

Meeting the increasingly rigorous hygiene standards required in the beverage, bottled water and food processing industries is becoming more of a challenge, particularly as more consumers are demanding a product that has not been treated with chemicals. If improvements need to be made to plant and equipment, they need to bring quick returns on the investment and measurable improvements in product quality.

UV is already a well established disinfection method in high purity applications such as pharmaceutical manufacturing, where water of the highest quality is required an economic, and is an ideal solution for those operators seeking to improve the quality of their product.