There are some other issues on Ozone use:
1. In the Philippines and Indonesia recently (last 2 years), there has been
increased questioning on the use of sanitizers in a plant - especially
sanitizers to be used to clean product/raw material coming into a plant.
The EU has been saying that Chlorine is not allowed for use on product and
as a consequence, more and more people have been looking at Ozone - whether
Ozone generators to help sanitize the air in the processing areas, or Ozone
baths for product.
For many many years, chlorine has been the main (if at all) sanitizer used -
for hands, footbaths, equipment, walls etc... and for markets outside of
Japan, even for sanitizing raw material coming in. We are going back almost
about 20 years when many of the plants were learning the difference between
selling Black Tiger shrimp to the Japanese vs the US market and figuring out
that Japanese standards for product quality - freshness, firmness of shell,
uniformity, count - were much stricter than that of the US, but the USA was
much stricter in terms of sanitation requirements. At first plants
producing for Japan would have a Grade 1, a Grade 2 with some plants
producing PUD as a by product. Soon Grade 1.5 started emerging for the USA,
and eventually a full U.S. grade came about as plants started understanding
the US market needs better.
Sanitation wise though, a standard emerged where shrimp (especially raw HO
raw material shrimp) entering a plant from the harvest site, would first be
dipped in a chlorine dip of as high as 100ppm with 50 ppm being more of the
standard. It would just be a quick dip/wash, to remove the dirt and any
bacteria that might have been picked up during harvest. Plants would
increase the number of washes at all points during the process - with
stations having 3 washes after critical points in the plant such as -
station after beheading (1x 20ppm chlorine followed by 2 x 0ppm chlorine
washes), after sizing, after grading, with the final wash just prior to
putting into the cold storage having either 0 or 3 ppm chlorine.
About 2 years ago the EU authorities came to visit both Indonesia and the
Philippines to review the procedures and standards that the local designated
"competent authorities" were using for determining whether a local plant was
to be given an "EU Number" or not and among the many issues discussed was
the use of Chlorine. The EU took the position that no/zero chlorine should
be added in water that the plant used on any product, that only a level of
chlorine used to make water "potable" should be allowed. I have asked many
people in Asia and Europe if this standard on chlorine use was written
anywhere in some official regulation and todate supposedly nothing is
actually written. Has anyone seen anything official regulations on the use
of chlorine?
Questions are:
What other sanitizers can be or are used in plants for sanitizing at
different levels of processing?
If a plant wants to target producing raw shrimp with a TPC of 10,000 at the
end of the processing line, is washing with potable water going to achieve
this?
2. A 2nd issue I remember hearing on the use of Ozone in a plant is
something from a brief discussion also about 15-20 years ago is that to put
ozone into a plant for treating its water is that you need to be careful
about the material that your water pipes is made of. There is some reaction
between ozone and PVC pipes if I recall, and for the ozonated water,
something like brass or some other material piping has to be used. Can your
friend comment on this Pam?
Thanks
Chingling Tanco
Managing Director
Mida Trade Ventures International Inc/Mida Food Distributors Inc.
Manila, Philippines.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-seafood@ucdavis.edu [mailto:owner-seafood@ucdavis.edu] On Behalf
Of Pamela Tom
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 2:02 AM
To: Seafood HACCP Discussion List
Subject: Re: Ozonator
To: Seafood HACCP Community
Today I received addition information from two folks today that I wish to
share with you on the subject:
This person is subscribed to the seafood list and e-mailed me instead of the
listserv address which is seafood@ucdavis.edu . "In my opinion try to have
a alternative sanitizer as compared to ozone. Ozononators are a bit
difficult to maintain, usually there are problems in the bubbler. another
problem is regarding setting proper concentrations. There dosen't seem to
have too cost effective methods to determine its residual
concentrations when compared to chlorine. So depending on your use give a
second thought to ozonator before purchasing."
This person (not a seafood list subscriber) is an ozone expert and
consultant (and good friend of mine): "Roger Boley(Ozonice) conducted tests
on use of ozonated ice for fish. The bottom line is ozone dissipates during
the freezing process, and the benefit is sterilizing the water in the ice so
that no contamination comes from the ice. It is surprising how dirty the
ice machines get, with subsequent high counts in the ice." He also noted
"Probably the most responsive manufacturer for food systems currently is Del
Ozone."
Pamela Tom
> Hi Jim,
>
> Here are some companies that supply or manufacture ozonators.
>
> Del Ozone http://www.delozone.com/
> Mazzei Injector Corp. http://www.mazzei.net/ozone_syst.htm
> Novazone http://www.novazone.com/
> Ozone Water System http://www.ozonewatersystems.com/ Ozonia
> http://www.ozonia.com/ Pacific Ozone Technology
> http://www.pacificozone.com/catalog/index.html
> Trailigaz http://www.trailigaz.com/profile_gb.htm
>
> Note the above was provided for your information. No endorsement of
> products or services is intended, nor is criticism implied of similar
> products which are not mentioned.
>
>
> Pamela Tom
> University of California
> Sea Grant Extension Program
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