Since the discovery of ultraviolet light disinfection technology, the UV light has been put to conventional use to disinfect water, air, surfaces, equipment, etc. It acts either by inactivating or killing the toxic and dangerous microorganisms like bacteria, viruses, fungi, algae, and protozoa.
Why is ultraviolet Light Sanitizer crucial to the food industry?
The surface disinfection application of UV light has been widely adopted across sectors like hospitals, HVAC applications, schools, biotech industries, restaurants, agriculture, pharmaceutical industries, food processing plants/companies, and manufacturing and production line. In these industries, equipment like conveyor, packing machine, containers, and their respective working surfaces are disinfected with the help of a UVC disinfection system or UVC disinfection unit.
When it comes to the food industry, the importance of disinfection gets the highest priority to produce or make contamination-free products or food items. Clean, pure, and microbes-free water and the air are vital to any food processing plant. Hence, UV light disinfection systems are adopted to eradicate microorganisms and maintain the shelf-life of the food products.
UVC in the food industry: FDA authorization
The US Food and Drug Administration, along with the Department of Health and Human Services has approved the use of UV radiation to kill harmful microbes, thereby enabling the safe sterilization of the infected surfaces. However, there is a set of regulatory norms that limits the usage of UV light for disinfection. For example, in the case of pulsed UV light, xenon lamps can be operated not more than 2 milliseconds.
Disinfecting air and water using UVC Light Sanitizer
In food industries, contamination-free air is crucial for producing food items at various levels, like baking, ripening, production, cooling, packaging, and storage. The UV disinfection lamps prevent the spread or transmission of airborne microbes at these stages and help maintain the production or food standards as required.
UVC light has been in use for decades to disinfect water and liquids primarily. As higher levels of chlorine spoil the quality of water, the UVC disinfection method seemed promising. Many food industries have been applying this technology to disinfect the water, brine, or any liquid they use to produce food products.
UVC disinfection unit for packaging
Exposing the food or food product packaging containers, caps, boxes, foils, lids, wraps, etc. to specific UV dose helps decontaminate the surface of these materials and prevents the contact of microbes with the food products.
Disinfecting equipment and food surfaces using UVC light
Millions of microorganisms are found to residue in equipment and their surfaces. The presence of these microbes affects food production and, thus, the product quality or shelf life. Also, the food surfaces serve as the primary location of microbial access in many cases. Hence to preserve the food products, the UVC disinfection method is adopted.
Effectiveness of UVC disinfection system in the food industry
Having the US FDA regulations in place, the efficacy of the UV light disinfection system varies with every change in the relative factors like the type on UV disinfection unit/system, the surface, target microbes/composition, operating conditions, etc.
With COVID-19 pandemic prevailing everywhere, the need of the hour of any food industry is the need for disinfection. Start using the PXL sanitizer, a cost-effective and straightforward solution to disinfect your industry or company’s surfaces!
