All customers have different needs and requirements when it comes to equipment and machinery, and the same is true when it comes to cleaning. To get the most out of JBT equipment, it is important that customers are using the right cleaning agents, which can also help guard against unnecessary wear and corrosion.
Joël Thomas, JBT’s West Region (Europe) Technical Solution Manager, explains why getting cleaning right is vital not just for meeting food safety standards, but also for keeping machinery in optimum working order.
Whether it be ready meals or bakery or dairy, or any manner of other food products, it is true to say that our customers produce very different products and for the same reason their machinery cleaning requirements are often just as varied.
Of course, depending on who you talk to – from maintenance managers to the quality department to the plant manager himself – people have different perspectives on what are the correct products and methods for cleaning. For many, the top priority is avoiding or reducing wear on a machine. In some cases, you can find corrosion in some machines because some customers are not using the right cleaning detergents, for example chlorine is totally forbidden in our equipment because some parts have aluminium.
Then of course you have quality control people who are looking for a clean, shiny machine. We carry out training for customers to show them how they can improve and what our detergents can do for them.
Avoiding unnecessary wear
Formula Clean® 110 and 210 are alkaline-based, foaming detergents specifically developed to fit JBT product lines and avoid unnecessary wear of components and equipment. Each product within the Formula Clean range has its purpose and special qualities and comes in different containers to customer needs.
Often when I visit factories, machines have already been cleaned by contractors or employees, but even then if you apply the Formula Clean detergent you can really see the difference with the quality of the foam and the shine it delivers. In some cases, customers have gone on to re-clean their machines after seeing the results. If it’s combined with a PRoCARE preventative maintenance contract, we will carry out training so all employees learn how to effectively clean a machine using Formula Clean.
In those cases where companies have difficulties with listeria, it is often found that the culprit lies with inadequate cleaning procedures. We can help with the right product and the right process for cleaning the machine. Sometimes you can find machines that are 10-15 years old and perhaps over the years personnel and cleaning procedures have changed, but we can also help to put in place all the right procedures for optimum cleaning and to get the equipment back to its original conditions. This also helps improve both product safety and overall production.
