As an efficient secondary energy source, steam is widely used in various processes such as cooking, sterilization, drying, and heating in the food and beverage industry. In people's daily understanding, steam is considered an ideal sterilization method, and it is also a safe, reliable and pollution-free energy source.

However, in some applications, such as direct contact with food or contact with containers and pipelines for storing and conveying materials, it is necessary to ensure that the steam does not contain any impurities or chemical substances, because the steam at this time is already one of the food raw materials or additives.

Nowadays, people pay more and more attention to food safety, and in order to ensure the safety of food production, food and beverage manufacturers need to use HACCP system to identify and control the potential contamination risk of steam.

Clean Steam - Ideal for the Food and Beverage Industry

Currently, the food and beverage industry typically uses 3 different grades of steam for sterilization – industrial steam, filtered (cooking) steam, and clean steam.

Industrial steam is usually used for heat exchange applications, but it is not suitable for applications that come into direct contact with food because it contains impurities and other chemicals.

Filtered steam, also known as cooking steam, eliminates impurities from the steam through a precision stainless steel filter. Although this sophisticated filter can filter about 95% of impurities larger than 2 microns, it cannot filter impurities smaller than 2 microns, and cannot filter and eliminate chemicals in steam. For direct contact with food, boiler feed water is required Water treatment Tim

Additives must meet food-grade requirements. At the same time, the filter should be cleaned regularly, otherwise the filtering capacity will be greatly reduced, resulting in food safety risks.

Clean steam is steam produced by heating pure water with industrial steam, which can avoid the risk of impurities and chemical pollutants, so it is widely used in direct heating, sterilization, cleaning, spraying, cooking and other processes in the food and beverage industry,Ideal for applications.

In recent years, with the development of the industry and the improvement of people's food safety awareness, the utilization rate of clean steam is maintaining a growing trend.

Common Applications for Clean Steam

Currently, the common applications of clean steam are as follows.

Deodorization of Grease

In the last process of oil production, the steam needs to be directly cooked into the deodorization tower to eliminate various odors in the oil. The steam makes direct contact with the surface of the vapor and liquid through the oil containing the odor component, so as to achieve the purpose of eliminating the odor.

Steamed Noodles

In the production process of instant noodles, the noodles need to be steamed before frying to ensure the taste. Instant noodles are cooked through a tunnel-type steam box, and the steam is directly sprayed into the steam box through multiple nozzles to directly contact the instant noodles.

Bio Protein Drink

In the production process of bio-protein beverages, it is necessary to directly cook steam into the ingredient tank and directly contact the product, and a high steam flow rate and pressure are required.

Other Application

Such as drying of milk powder, heating of sauce, peeling of potatoes, baking of bread, baby food, UHT of milk, making of candy, SIP, aseptic canning, sterilization of beer barrels, etc., the production process is A very typical direct steam injection is used.

In addition to the pollution risks in direct steam contact applications, the assessment also needs to identify risks in all links from steam generation to transportation and use. Dryness of steam, non-condensable gas and overheated temperature will also directly affect sterilization, CIP, etc.

The effect of the process, thereby affecting the quality of the finished food product.

Assess Risks in Steam Systems

①Identify the risks of the steam system: carry out a set of comprehensive risk analysis and assessment on the entire steam system;

② Take effective measures for each risk point;

③Use the optimal steam system design scheme to improve steam quality.