CIP Optimisation

Cleaning In Place (CIP) has been a commonplace activity in most breweries and dairies since the 1960’s; it was developed to make cleaning more efficient. CIP over the last 10-15 years has become more popular in the food processing industry. Like all cleaning methods, optimisation of the clean has to be taken into consideration. The cleaning regime must be sufficient to achieve suitable visual and microbial standards while minimising water & energy usage, minimising discharge to sewer and carrying this out while still allowing maximum production capability.

CIP sets when first implemented by equipment manufacturers are generally set up and validated using generous detergent strengths and cycle timings. This ensures easy compliance, with the required cleaning standards, during commissioning. Holchem work with our customers to assess the cleaning cycles and put forward recommendations for optimised CIP regimes.

Production plant and associated CIP sets are expanded or modified over time; this sometimes occurs without reference to the CIP set capability or the original manufacturer. Assessment of CIP set and cleaning cycles can provide valuable management data to allow site to make most efficient use of their resources.

Holchem work with sites to ensure that all CIP parameters, cleaning routes and products are recorded onto a Hygiene Management System. This provides a tool to allow companies to manage their CIP sets more effectively.

Some sites have CIP sets with little or no capability of recording process variables such as return flow conductivity, return flow temperature, return flow rate or feed flow rate. To help determine if these CIP cleans can be optimised, Holchem have available “smart tube” technology. This tube can be placed in the return leg of the CIP set and all cleaning cycle parameters can be data logged for analysis and report.