We have experienced several surprising advantages regarding food safety and increased quality of our product since we started implementing ECA water.
Disinfectant: Originally we bought the MOW2 for blood water treatment after working with salmon leftovers from the aquaculture. This to prevent the spreading of disease (ISA etc.) when the left over water is released back into the ocean.
Environment: The mixed oxidized water clearly is a “greener” solution with no impact on the environment. The MOW2 steps in the place of traditional chlorine products like Sodium Hypochlorite. Basically you exchange the chemistry, that
has bad impact on both local environment and
post a hazard for the personnel handling the
chemistry, to something you produce “in situ”
from two abundant resources – namely normal
salt and water.
Process water: We are adding this in to our process water in a measured concentration of 2 ppm at the “last” faucet. This keeps all our pipes free of biofilm and help reducing bacteria in our prodution and products.
Cleaning on surfaces: We have added a little foaming agent to the mix oxidized water in our low pressure cleaning system, and we have an efficient substitute for traditional soap in the facility. Furthermore we have been using it is as a continuously adding soaking agent for portable equipment in 1000 liters tubs without adding foaming agent. This leaves the equipment very clean and bacteria free.
Disinfection of surfaces: after cleaning we spray the mixed oxidized water in a concentration of 200-400 ppm on the cleaned surfaces and leave it there without rinsing of. This has taken down both general ATP RLU levels and CFU-levels of total count and enterobacteriacaea to practically nothing. All the machines and surfaces look fresh and more crisp. It totally removes all traces of biofilm and prevent the buildup of biofilm on our production facility.
Fogging and disinfection: We have furthermore used 400 ppm for fogging the drying tunnels and other locations in our facilities with great results. Especially in the drying tunnels we experienced significant drops in levels of ATP in places which
were very difficult to in fact impossible to clean because of reduced or no access for traditional cleaning. CFU’s of total count and enterobacteriacaea on surfaces have also dropped significantly
(3 logs or more).
Increased shelf life of e.g. blue whiting: We are experimenting with fishing blue whiting for human consumption, fresh frozen and/or dried. And normally blue whiting goes bad after 1 or 2 days. Our goal was to increase the shelf life just a little bit so practicability could introduced into multiple products opportunities made from blue whiting. We rinsed the RSW-tanks with ECA water on the way to our designated fishing position. Continuously added ECA to the mix and circulated for
max effect. We continuously added ECA low concentrations
to the tanks while they were getting filled with fish keeping the measured concentrations in the tanks between 8 and 20 ppm.
When the fish was offloaded to our production facilities now in ice water with a continuous adding of water to keep the measured concentration on 8 to 20 ppm. The results were mindblowing! We kept TVN levels on a steady low ranging from 12-14 on the first days up to 17-18 on after 21 days of treatment. The organoleptic assessment was also fantastic. Fresh eyes, firmess of the fish and color of the gils – everything consisted with freshly
caught blue whiting – with normally is inedible after 1 day.
Here we sat eating fresh blue whiting after 3 weeks in ECA ice water. We stopped the experiment after 3 weeks since we were totally convinced of this. Microbiological tests of the blue whiting were also more or less sterile during the experiment.
Miscellaneous: We also did other tests with the MOW ECA – like cleaning outside areas for green algae and other minor disinfection tasks. All were
solved perfectly with the MOW ECA solutions. We see a lot of further possibilities of implementation this in the future.
We are really happy to be a first mover in this revolution.
Please feel free to contact me regarding any questions about the MOW2 or ECA in general.
Magnus Pauli Glerfoss
quality and development manager
Email: mpg@fmp.fo
Mobile phone: +298 588 005