35.1 Introduction
This chapter aims to summarise and assess currently available monitoring
techniques for the food and other relevant industries and indicate some potential
future trends in this area. The importance of fouling, cleaning and disinfection as
prerequisites to Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) are described
together with a description of different types of fouling, their operational
consequences and the general approach to cleaning and disinfection processes.
Current approaches to monitoring are described together with the key issues,
which may limit their application. The systems are also characterised in terms of
whether the sensor element is invasive or non-invasive, the measurement made
at a point or integrated over the whole system and the data obtained in real time
or retrospectively, as these are significant in terms of their potential application
in practice. In addition to commercial scale processes, monitoring has a key role
in the development of small-scale techniques that allow the fouling, cleaning
and disinfection characteristics of new products or processes to be assessed.
Such monitoring systems can be used to identify the key parameters that
influence fouling and cleaning and offer the opportunity to optimise the process
before implementation on a commercial scale. The essential industry
requirements, which have to be met before any system is used commercially,
are considered and some of the potential benefits from improved monitoring are
noted. Future trends in the area of monitoring are suggested based on likely
developments within the food industry.
35
Improving the monitoring of fouling,
cleaning and disinfection in closed
process plant
A. P. M. Hasting, Tony Hasting Consulting, UK