Water treatment in the food & beverage processing industry

As a result of stricter regulations and rising customer awareness, food and beverage manufacturers are investing more in efficient water treatment.

Contents

Introduction

Water treatment plays an important role in any food and beverage production. It takes part in almost every step from ingredients to cleaning. Therefore, maintaining its purity and cleanliness is essential to product quality and consumer health. Let’s figure out what proper water treatment is in this article.

What is pre-production water treatment?

In food and beverage production, a safe and pure water source is crucial. In addition to being an essential component, water is used in many other procedures, including cooling, sanitization, and cleaning. Water treatment aims to make water suitable for production and meet required standards. Through the treatment, the water source is removed from impurities, particles, pollutants, and bacteria.

Numerous pollutants can be found in water from natural sources like rivers, lakes, and wells, including chlorine, heavy metals, microorganisms, and sediments. These contaminants may negatively affect food and beverage quality. When choosing water treatment methods, manufacturers should consider the raw water quality, production volume, space availability, maintenance requirements, and costs.

Clean water — Water treatment removes impurities, contaminations, etc.

Why is pre-production water treatment important?

There are several reasons why water treatment before manufacturing is vital.

Ensure product quality: First, a water source that meets required safety standards contributes to ensuring high-quality final products. Microbiologically polluted water can deteriorate the taste, odor, and appearance of the products.

Lengthen product shelf life: Preventing the growth of bacteria that cause spoiling, proper water treatment can help lengthen product shelf life, reducing the wastage rate.

Maintain consistency: Appropriate water treatment could lower the risk of foodborne illnesses and maintain consistency among finished items, maintaining consumer loyalty and brand reputation.

Meet operational standards: It also helps manufacturers meet the required standards to operate legally and the requirements to officially launch their products.

Increase machinery longevity: Clean water can decrease scaling, corrosion, and microbial growth in machines, lowering the need for equipment maintenance and repairs. As a result, manufacturers can reduce the total cost and increase the machinery’s longevity.

What are standards for water in food and beverage processing?

Because water directly affects the product quality, it must be strictly controlled. Many organizations worldwide, such as the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the World Health Organization (WHO), have set strict rules to manage water quality in production. Generally, the maximum levels of several pollutants that can be present in the production water are specified by these regulations. Manufacturers must adhere to these rules to operate legally and secure customer health.

Depending on the nations and regions, different water quality criteria may apply. Testing should be done regularly to ensure that the water source meets standards. FGC factories are equipped with standard water filtration systems, ensuring the quality of used water. There are some main criteria when assessing water quality, including hardness, pH levels, heavy metals, and microbiology.

Physically, standard water must be transparent, colorless, odorless, and tasteless. It must be free from any particles or contaminations. These criteria can be tested and assessed by sensory methods. In addition, chemical standards are also strictly required. Water hardness that is suitable for beverage production is below 300 mg/l. The accepted pH is in the neutral range, from 6.5 to 8.5. Heavy metals must be removed as much as possible, with limits on arsenic (<0.01 mg/l), lead (<0.005 mg/l), cadmium, and so on. Besides, salmonella, legionella, and E.coli are dangerous germs that must be absent from water. The total coliform levels need to be under 1 CFU/100 ml.

Pure water is transparent, odorless, tasteless, and colorless

Furthermore, depending on the specific beverages, there might be additional requirements relating to mineral and dissolved solid levels. To manufacture carbonated drinks, deionized or softened water is usually used for CO2 retention. Water for flavor-sensitive beverages like tea, coffee, or energy drinks must have minimal total dissolved solids and be free from residual chlorine.

What are water treatment methods in food and beverage production?

The food and beverage industry has access to a variety of water treatment methods. Choosing a specific approach or combining them is based on the particular contaminants found in the water, the expected level of treatment, and the production scale. Besides, depending on the water source, the water treatment process may be changed a lot.

Multi-material filtration:

In this step, suspended contaminants and particles are physically removed from water to achieve transparency. Filtration is effective in absorbing organic matter and eliminating residual chlorine in water. Activated carbon, sand, membrane, multimedia filtration, and microfiltration are some applied methods. However, if the water source is terrible, the filtration step needs to be done many times, or it might take more time to wait for the tank to deposit.

Softening:

Water softening removes the ions that cause hardness in water, like calcium and magnesium, through ion exchange resins or chemical softeners. Ion exchange refers to the process of exchanging ions in water with ions with those bonđ to a resin. While softening water, calcium and magnesium ions are wrapped by sodium ions. The purpose of this process is to avoid scaling and clogging of pipes and equipment and improve production efficiency.

Reverse osmosis (RO):

The purpose of the RO system is to remove dissolved salts, organic impurities, and particles from water sources. It works well to get rid of pollutants, including pesticides, chlorine, salts, and heavy metals. Therefore, RO filtration is often used for high-purity water in beverages, especially ingredient water. When water gets into the RO system, it goes through prefiltration, including carbon and sediment filters. Then, water passes over the RO membrane to dissolve particles, even too small ones.

Disinfection:

This process kills bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens present in water. One of the most common disinfection methods is ultraviolet (UV) rays. This sterilization approach involves no chemicals to achieve pure water without affecting its taste. In addition to UV rays, other disinfected methods, such as chlorination and ozonation, are applied to prevent microbial growth. However, chlorination can affect beverages’ taste, making it less preferable.

Explore Cleaning-in-place (CIP) processes:

What is CIP (Cleaning in place) in beverage production?

Conclusion

Water treatment is an inevitable step when manufacturing food and beverages. By ensuring the purity of water, the quality and shelf life of the finished products are guaranteed. Product quality and consumer health are FGC’s priorities, so we always try to ensure qualified input water and have constantly improved and upgraded to enhance efficiency.

About Future Generation Co.,Ltd

Future Generation Company Limited is one of the largest beverage suppliers in Vietnam, with 27 years of experience in production and export. FGC is equipped with modern machines such as Hotfill PET and TetraPak, ensuring high-capacity production. FGC strives to achieve our mission to become Vietnam’s leading healthy beverage company. Our factories also meet international standards such as ISO, HACCP, etc. In addition, we constantly innovate our machinery system, strengthen production capacity, and increase productivity.

FGC also provides Private Label Services. With this service, we can help customers in researching and formulating beverages, designing product label packaging, and creating their own brands. This is an ideal solution for small and medium enterprises. Moreover, FGC provides free samples for customers to test before bulk orders. We also ensure delivery as fast as possible.