Pre-washing 19L Bottles

Many 19L bottles are returned from the customer in a poor state of cleanliness.  They may have been stored incorrectly before collection or been abused when used for other purposes.

The delivery and collection operator should refuse collection of abused bottles and the customer should be charged accordingly with the cost of replacement.  However, this rarely happens and the soiled bottles are collected and returned for washing.

Bottles which are heavily soiled or show considerable algal growth should be rejected in the checking process before washing.  However, many bottles are "borderline" and this is where the bottle checkers need to make a decision to reject or go forward with washing. Mistakes can be made and some bottles may enter the bottle washer and cause costly contamination.

It is preferable to have a pre-washing facility available for these bottles.  Semi-automatic equipment is available which makes this task much easier.  It is better to use equipment like this rather than depend on "home-made" rigs.

Cleaning by jets and brushes with a hot detergent solution will provide clean bottles, both inside and out.  To be extra safe, sanitising products may be used which give both cleaning and disinfection.  The bottle then may be added safely to the stock entering the bottle washer.

  

Detergent Top-up in Bottle Washers

During bottle washing, the concentration of detergent in the wash tank will decrease during the day. This is caused by the bottles taking out detergent as they pass through the wash section and is known as “drag out”. 


With some machines the drag out can be considerable, so that by lunchtime the concentration may be half of the original. In hard water situations this can lead to ineffective washing and scale build-up on heater elements. The loss of detergent should be compensated throughout the day.

There are several ways of doing this, the most basic being to top up the detergent manually. Other methods involve automatic addition via a pump. This may be through timed addition, where the pump adds detergent in increments throughout the day, or by closed loop addition where the pump is linked to a conductivity probe. The pump will activate when the conductivity (concentration) falls below a set threshold.

If you do not want to invest in additional equipment, a simple top-up chart can be provided which shows how much detergent needs to be added at different conductivity levels.  Low-cost pocket conductivity meters are available from several suppliers for measuring the conductivity at regular intervals throughout the day

Protection of the Whole Bottling Plant Environment

Watercoolers with anti-microbial surfaces are a technological advance, but it would be an even greater advance if your whole bottling plant could be treated in a like manner. 


This is not as far-fetched as it seems, in fact, such a treatment is already available. In previous publications I have talked about airborne bacteria and transference of bacteria from one surface to another, by hand or by contact with contaminated clothing or gloves. A surface treatment for floors, walls and ceilings is available which creates an anti-bacterial coating.


The procedure involves cleaning the surfaces thoroughly and then spraying a solution of the active component onto the cleaned areas. After drying, the film hardens and the anti-bacterial surface is fixed. Normal cleaning products will not remove the film.


Previous applications have been in hospital environments, but the application in food and beverage preparation areas is a natural next step. The biocidal elements do not leach out of the film therefore safety, toxicity and taint are not issues.


The treatment is ideal for new bottling plants before commissioning , but post application is equally valuable. 

E. coli in the Bottling Plant

The recurring news items about E. Coli infections in the UK and Continental Europe show how contaminated food distributed to the general public can have disastrous consequences, not only for the unfortunate people affected but also for the food supplier.


E. Coli is found in animal intestines and contamination can occur easily in the abattoir during the disembowelling process. It can be prevented by good cleaning and disinfection programmes.

Fortunately, in the bottled water industry such contamination is rare because of the strict hygiene practices required. However, bottling plants on farming land do carry a higher risk. I know of one bottling plant which is adjacent to an abattoir so that extra hygiene precautions need to be taken.

Most contamination in the bottling plant is either walked in on footwear, floated in through doorways or transferred by human contact. Floors are particularly susceptible and it pays to use a disinfectant with residual action so that protection is maintained for extended periods during the shift.

Disinfectants based on quaternary ammonium compounds provide this residual action and are specially suited for treatment of walls and floors. It is advisable to use two different types of disinfectant in long-term treatment of floors, to prevent any possibility of acclimatisation by microorganisms. A chlorinated foamer is ideal as a companion product. 

Meanwhile, despite the bad image of the bacterium, E. Coli can look quite attractive and photogenic, as this picture of an unusual swimming variety shows.

Hand Hygiene

Hand hygiene is a key factor in ensuring that bacterial contamination stays out of your bottling plant and cooler servicing room.


Facilities must be available for washing hands, with easy access, warm water and a sink area that is easy to keep clean. A supply of paper for drying hands and a box of protective gloves must always be nearby. Hand  washing should become a ritual whenever an operator or visitor enters the plant. 


Two products are required next to the sink - a liquid soap and an alcoholic gel. The operator washes hands thoroughly first, then dries with a paper towel and finally applies the alcoholic gel. The gel should be of the type which dries quickly without leaving any odour or residue. 


Protective gloves are no substitute for hand washing and hands should be clean and disinfected before wearing gloves. The gloved hand should be treated with alcoholic gel at regular intervals to offset contamination arising from accidentally touching the face, hair or items of clothing.

Physical Contamination of Bottled Water

We all know that most foreign bodies get into 19L bottles at the customers’ premises, normally when the bottle is empty, and then the bottle is hijacked for other purposes.


It is very rare that objects enter the bottle in the bottling plant, but it can happen, the most obvious items being human hair and insect fragments. Protective clothing needs to be worn to protect the water from contamination. Over-clothing should be without top pockets and designed to completely cover the upper body. Hair protection needs to be worn so as to completely cover the hair. Disposable hair covering should be changed daily.


Hair covering should be put on before coats and taken off after coats to prevent hair falling on shoulders. An adequate non-glass mirror should be available to enable staff to check that their hair protection covers 100% of their hair.


Electric fly killers should not be positioned close to the filling section to avoid insect fragments being spattered into this area. The design of the fly killer should be such that most of the debris falls into a catchment tray. An alternative is to consider a UV based non-electric killer with a glue board.


Make a study of glass in the bottling plant and assess the risks associated with breakage. Remove all unprotected glass and replace with a suitable glass alternative or protect with shatterproof film. Ensure that a glass breakage  procedure is in place and that it will be immediately implemented if a breakage occurs.


Light fittings should all  have unbreakable diffusers or covers (not glass), and where fluorescent tubes are fitted the diffusers should have covered ends. Shatter-proof fluorescent tubes are available as an alternative to using covers. Where possible, light fittings should be flush with the ceilings.


Watch out for fragments of bottle caps. The bottle washer is usually littered with cap fragments at the end of the shift. The likelihood of fragments getting into the filler section is remote, but ensure that cap debris are cleared out of the machine regularly.


A more risky point is during capping. Make sure that the capper is well adjusted and that the caps are completely compatible with the neck dimensions. If some caps are incompletely seated, dissuade operators from bashing them with a hammer, this may cause some plastic bits to fly off into the water.


As mentioned at the beginning, the likelihood of foreign bodies getting into the water is remote, and with good housekeeping practices probably it will never happen. However, it is important to be aware of all the hazards that may lead to this unlikely event.

Sanitising Pipework and Holding Tanks in Bottling Plants

Water is best kept in constant flow from source to filling. Water for bottling, natural mineral water in particular, should not be retained in static bulk storage for more than 24 hours.


The design and operation of the storage tanks should restrict the time from abstraction to bottling to a minimum. Air entering the head space of tanks should be filtered or treated to prevent contamination of product water.


Water is the world’s best solvent - it will dissolve or absorb all manner of substances. It is therefore highly vulnerable to picking up taste and odour taints. It is well worth using stainless steel, grade 316, for all pipework, tanks and bottling equipment.

In the case of product which has not been treated or disinfected, eg natural mineral water, great care must be taken to prevent microbial contamination and pollution. Cleaning of tanks and pipework deserves careful attention.  Alkaline or acidic CIP cleaners are ideal for cleaning and descaling closed systems and terminal disinfection is best carried out with peracetic acid or, alternatively, hydrogen peroxide.