Removal Characteristics of Baked Wheat Starch Deposits Treated with Aqueous Cleaning Agents

Abstract

The fouling and cleaning of surfaces in contact with foods remains one of the major processing problems in the food industry. Baking processes must continuously guard against contamination of their products and reduction in quality due to lack of hygiene. Continuous operation of equipment has led to the introduction of ‘Cleaning In-Place’ (CIP) methods. The development and criteria affecting cleaning of processing and storage equipment is of increasing concern. Considerable time, detergent and energy may be saved if a clear understanding of the principles involved in cleaning starches and a knowledge of the effect of certain variables upon starch removal were determined. Cost optimisation of dairy CIP cycles has been studied by Bird and Espig (1994). Their study analyses a typical multi-stage acid/alkali dairy CIP cycle to examine the effect of detergent ternperature, flow-rate and concentration upon the cost of cleaning. The results show that the cost of cleaning agent concentration and temperature influence costs most, whereas the flow-rate selection requires prior knowledge of specific down-time cost.