Biofilm represents a major threat in food production plants, since it is the ideal environment for the survival and growth of pathogenic bacteria. Moreover, biofilm can be up to 1000 times more resistant to sanitation treatments with respect to free-floating bacteria.
In a particular food production plant, when the flavour of the product had to be changed, water was used to pump residual material out of the pipeline and to wash the pipes. The water used for this process was stored in a closed loop, continuously flowed, filtered and treated with UV light. After use, the water was discharged. Once every three weeks, the closed loop was cleaned using chemicals, and the filters were sterilised using steam.
After a period of use, the quality control staff noticed a frequent increase in the bacterial count in water samples taken from the loop. Initially the staff thought that this was due to damage in the filters, and replaced them. This did not solve the problem. They decided to install an Alvim system, in order to check if there was any biofilm growth inside the closed loop. It was then possible to see that, just after the sanitation of the loop, biofilm immediately started to grow again.
This means that some bacteria passed the filters and survived the UV treatment and then re-colonised in the pipelines of the loop. Indeed, it has been widely demonstrated that 0,2 microns filtration and most chemical treatments cannot achieve 100% effectiveness in removing bacteria. At the same time, Alvim showed that the chosen cleaning strategy was not able to completely remove the biofilm growth inside the water loop. Cleaning frequency was increased, and subsequent laboratory analyses on water samples showed that bacterial proliferation was under control. This was confirmed also by the Alvim sensor.
The Alvim biofilm monitoring system represents an innovative solution for keeping track, online and in real-time, of bacterial settlement and growth from its very first phases in industrial water lines, tanks and heat exchangers.
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