Pet Food Production Cleaning Done Right
With the U.S. market for pet food and treats expected to hit nearly $63 billion this year, pet food manufacturers don’t have the luxury of much downtime.
Keeping up with the demand for all that kibble is no walk in the park, even before supply chain and labor market conditions went off the leash.
When it comes to keeping their lines clean and clog-free, busy pet food manufacturers look for fast, effective and flexible options with minimal downtime – or what some industrial cleaning businesses would call “can’t be done.”
With hundreds of feet of perforated, multi-tiered lines conveying pet food morsels into and out of the drying ovens, keeping things clean in a pet food plant presents layers of challenges.
Debris and crumbs fall through the perforations and accumulate under, on, in, and around the production line. Meanwhile, cleaning methods can’t introduce water, chemicals or other debris into the area. Finally, it must be completed with minimal disruption to the production process.
It’s little wonder that some manufacturers simply avoid cleaning until caked-on buildup becomes a problem. Others resort to chiseling it off by hand in a laborious and time-consuming process that can require as much as a week of downtime.
The lucky ones discover dry ice (CO2) blasting, a fast, effective and water-free process that cleans the dirtiest conveyors, dryers and other equipment without introducing chemicals or debris, or causing collateral damage.
Benefits of Dry Ice Blasting
With the availability of dry ice blasting, which uses frozen CO2 pellets that sublimate on contact, there is no reason to put off cleaning pet food production lines, where food particles can impede the flow of air needed to fully dry the product. Such clogs threaten product quality, the efficiency and functioning of your equipment, and pose a fire hazard. Having cleaned enough soot from this type of equipment, we know the risk is real.
The challenge is finding a cleaning solution that doesn’t introduce new problems in the process of solving others. That’s why so many manufacturers of food and other sensitive products switch to dry ice blasting instead.
Here’s are three primary benefits of using dry ice blasting for pet food processing:
- Minimal Disruption: dry ice blasting is fast and precise, and because the pellets sublimate on contact, there’s no extraneous media to clean up
- Safety: dry ice blasting is a water-free and chemical-free method that is safe to use near food products; dry ice blasting is also adjustable, with a level of force that can be calibrated to safely clean equipment as delicate as an electrical panel
- Effectiveness: dry ice blasting is effective at removing a wide variety of adherents from a production line at a speed of up to 6-8 square feet per minute
Your Pet Food Production Cleaning Partner
When you partner with Polar Clean for your toughest industrial cleaning challenges, you will get the benefit of more than fast and effective cleaning solutions. You will also get the experience and expertise of the Polar Clean team.
That includes careful planning and containment strategies and an assessment designed to identify the most effective method for tackling your job, whether that means dry ice blasting alone or in combination with other cleaning methods including abrasive blasting and sponge blasting.
Our team will work with you to ensure the highest quality results with the least amount of disruption – including overnight scheduling and specialized containment strategies that can be used when downtime isn’t possible.
Training and certifications for working at heights, in confined spaces and in the use of respiratory equipment – among other specialized training – further ensure Polar Clean gets the toughest jobs done, efficiently and safely.
Don’t wait to get your conveyor cleaning challenges resolved. Speak to a Polar Clean team member today.