Industrial food processing plants use several types of equipment to prevent their products from spoiling. Spoilage prevention is essential for several reasons; firstly, it ensures that the raw materials used by these facilities do not rot before they can be processed and sold, and the facility, therefore, does not suffer financial losses as a result of food waste.
Secondly, it drastically reduces the chance of the end customer (who consumes the facility's products) developing food poisoning. Last but not least, spoilage prevention helps to maximise the shelf life of food products, which benefits both the manufacturer and the end customer.
Here are two types of equipment that industrial food processing plants use to keep their food products fresh:
High-tech air conditioning systems
The harmful viruses, bacteria and spores which can cause food to spoil require oxygen, warmth and moisture in order to survive and breed. By eliminating just one of these factors, it is possible to prevent these microorganisms from multiplying.
As such, many facilities use high-tech commercial air conditioning systems to keep the temperatures in their food processing and storage areas as low as possible. This drastically reduces the number of dangerous microorganisms on work tables, conveyor belts, handrails and other surfaces that employees touch, and thus helps to lessen the likelihood of food products becoming contaminated as they are prepared and packaged.
Because commercial air conditioning systems have very large, powerful condensers, they have a much higher cooling capacity than their standard residential counterparts and are, therefore, better able to keep the temperatures consistently low, even in enormous industrial spaces. They also allow for different 'zones' in a facility to maintain different temperatures.
Pressure washers
The raw fruits and vegetables which are used to create processed food products are usually covered in a substantial amount of soil, small insects and other contaminants that are found in nature. If these things are not removed from the food, they can eventually lead to its premature spoilage.
As such, pressure washers are routinely used in a number of food processing plants, to wash away dirt and microbes from freshly-picked fruit and vegetables.
These pressure washers are used in conjunction with water that has been filtered to remove potentially dangerous contaminants. Industrial pressure washers can produce several litres of water per minute; the force with which this water hits the fruit and vegetables helps to rinse the majority of contaminants off of them.
This equipment provides an extremely efficient and safe means of preventing food spoilage, without the need for use of potentially-hazardous chemical disinfectants.
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