A Guide to Clean in Place Technology for Poultry Equipment

With the advancement in the poultry industry, many modern technologies have allowed poultry owners to use a clean-in-place system (CIP), which is a mixture of water, heat, and chemicals to clean and sanitize the poultry equipment without dismantling it. This increases the efficiency and effectiveness, but this CIP system can still be a challenge for you because choosing the right chemicals to fight all kinds of debris and bacteria, preventing enlargement of tubes, an inspection of interior surfaces, and at last reducing the growth of biofilms may hinder your sanitization process. Many Professional Poultry Processing Equipment Manufacturer say it is best to use this CIP system to clean the equipment; this blog will break down the basic components of using this system.

Primary Designs of The CIP System:

·         Single-pass: In this method, the chemical mixtures are used at once and require disposal soon after their flush. If your poultry farm contains lots of debris, this method is suitable because the remaining solution will become very polluted and cannot be used again.

·         Re-circulating: This type of design differs from the single one as they are known to be re-used. They re-use the cleaning solution and rinse the water. This kind of design is best to be used in farms with low debris.

·         Re-use: Re-use designs recover the final rinse solutions, enabling use in future cleanings.

Cleaning Agents:

After choosing the design, there is a need to select the best cleaning agent. This system involves various kinds of chemicals to choose that solely depend on your needs. Some kinds of chemicals that are used are caustic soda, phosphoric acid, and sodium hypochlorite, with their respective properties and advantages.

·         Caustic soda: This helps shatter the fat particles and often softens the surface, making it easier to clean the surface. Although it is very good at breaking particles but is inefficient at removing scaling.

·         Phosphoric and Nitric Acids: If the poultry farm’s floor is scaled and instilled debris, then this acid is beneficial as it helps in removing them. But I should be used cautiously because this is hazardous and can even break down the pump seals.

·         Sodium Hypochlorite: This acid is very cheap to use and one of the lowest cost options while using the CIP system. The primary function of this acid is for disinfecting and is relatively ineffective at removing soil.

Now the thing to consider is where to keep these chemicals and sanitized fluid? There should be two tanks, one for the chemical solution and the other for the fluid. Peristatic, pneumatic diaphragm, and metering pumps are used for the dispersion using spray balls and nozzles, which regulate the flow of chemicals. The temperature control is also necessary, which is done through steam heat exchanger while the flow can be checked through programmable logic controllers. Make sure to check the PH levels to ensure the proper level of the chemicals.

CIP Systems Operate Using a Series of Cycles:

In the first place, run an initial drain to remove any liquid that is still remaining or any particle that can be removed easily. The second step involves a pre-rinse in which any loose soil is washed out, and this process is carried at a chilly temperature which should be less than 80-degree F. After that, you should wash it with the treatment solution you bought for cleaning purposes and circulate this solution for about one whole hour which will remove other particles or debris remaining from your equipment. After carrying out the process of flushing your equipment with chemicals, you can rinse it further to sanitize the equipment properly. This is a complete process, but you can still run an optional sanitizing process that means you can further rinse it through clean water, making sure that not a single particle is remaining. If you have stainless-steel equipment, then using chlorine fluids can cause rusting, thus decreasing its lifespan.

Benefits:

The pros associated with this system are numerous. This is a very cost-effective method that needs very less labor for the entire sanitization process. The washing and dismantling of equipment can be done with few people on the poultry farm. Re-usage of chemicals is another advantage that further helps in cutting costs and achieving economies of scale. Many strong chemicals can be used to eliminate harmful bacteria from equipment and produce a clean and clean and up to the quality standards of the poultry industry.