Food and Beverage Grade Compressed Air
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Food and Beverage Grade Compressed Air

BCAS-Best-Practice-Guide-102-1

 With the release of the latest "BCAS Best Practice Guide on Food and Beverage Grade Compressed Air", we thought what a good time to do a blog!

 

In previous blogs we have spoken about the importance of compressed air quality. As a utility, Compressed Air is widely used in the Food and Beverage industry for a diverse range of operations, from powering pneumatics, process, and automation equipment, to moving, mixing, and blending ingredients. 

 

Contaminants commonly associated with Compressed Air are categorised in the form of dirt, water, and oil.

The risk to food and beverage from Compressed Air processes can potentially be significant if the right precautions and preventative measures have not been taken. Moisture, oil, and other particles all pose a risk in applications where compressed air is commonly used, such as drying and filtering.

There are two clearly identified sectors to the air purity requirements

  1. Air that comes into direct contact with the food (contact)
  2. Air that could come into contact with the food (non-contact)

Especially in areas where it can come into direct or indirect contact with food/beverage production equipment, ingredients, finished products or packaging, it needs to be carefully controlled, to prevent the risk of contamination.

For direct contact with food and beverage, in particular during production or processing, this requires a much higher level of contaminant control. For food and beverage production where the compressed air comes into direct contact, the amounts of oil present, and type of oil allowed is subject to strict controls. We stock a wide range of food-grade compressor oils.  Some food/beverage producers have internal requirements where oil levels are strictly controlled.

Maintenance is another key element in ensuring that your compressed air/vacuum and nitrogen equipment maintain acceptable operating conditions. The controls applied to all types of contaminants may either be a customer requirement or one set by legislation.

Whether you need totally oil-free compressed air systems for sensitive applications in Food & Beverage processing, or “technically oil-free” with filtration or normal oil-injected compressors for general plant air, nitrogen generators, vacuum pumps or pipework, Air4u Group can help you with a tailored solution for your application.

On-site, food-grade nitrogen generation.

Discover the potential cost savings and other advantages of using on-site nitrogen generation for your Food and Beverage applications. You may also be interested in Nitrogen Generation for Modified Atmosphere Packaging

Whatever your needs, our team can advise on the right system for your process.

If you wish to find out any further information, please follow the link to send us an email at sales@air4ultd.co.uk 

Also, why not check out our blog Why is Compressed Air Quality important?

https://www.air4ultd.co.uk/why-is-it-compressed-air-quality-important/ 

To obtain a copy of BCAS Best Practice Guide 102-1 Food and Beverage Grade Compressed Air, please follow this link: 

https://www.bcas.org.uk/websiteform/bcas-best-practice-guild-102-1-11.aspx