Achieving germ rate stability in chicken processing plant

Daily cleaning with water in cooled rooms keeps the air saturated long after cleaning, which causes condensation droplets to form in the cutting room and in the ready-to-cook workshop. This presents a number of potential problems in food processing, and can have a significant impact on the final product. Pludis works exclusively with quality “Plufine” chickens, and the chickens need to be as dry as possible and delivered to their customers with a minimum number of bacteria. Pludis optimized some of its refrigeration installations, but they have proved insufficient because the crucial low dew point, required to allow a fast and adequate evaporation of moisture in their production, could not be reached. After that, the quality manager of Pludis contacted Munters for a complete solution.."

Better hygiene

“As a food company, you receive many audit checks by your customers and governmental organizations as FAVV,” says one Pludis employee. “For both our own needs and of those institutes we had to change something. Munters suggested that we both tackle the problem areas, namely our cutting shop and the ready-to-cook department by applying sorption drying.” Every time the team started production in the morning, they experienced a space that was still ‘wet’. After cleaning the machines the day before, a pile of high humidity accumulated in the production space, which was manifested by a high relative humidity, wet surfaces and even fog. By installing a Munters dryer and removing the humid air to feed the room after each cleaning, the room is dry once again. In the cutting room, Pludis had to face the problem of condensation on the ceiling, and again Munters had the solution. Since the installation, the germs count (number of bacteria per gram of chicken) has remained constant from the start to the end of the production process. Even in hot and humid summer conditions Pludis was able to control the conditions and ensure a constant minimal germ count. “Microbiologically, we can provide a more stable and hygienic production environment with Munters,” adds the employee, “which results in high quality chicken, with as little water absorption as possible. Because of the dry climate in the production area, Pludis controls the levels of hygiene much better than before and that makes a real, positive difference. “If customers and inspection institutions visit the production area, they can see the difference with their own eyes,” explains the Pludis staff member. “They do not enter wet areas where there is a risk of cross contamination and injury, but instead they enter dry workspaces where hygiene is well controlled. Not to mention the staff - job satisfaction and motivation are both significantly improved, and this is what it is all about in this family business. Employee satisfaction ensures that the heart of the company remains active and efficient, and there are less production stops caused by technical failures. Customers of course rely on their daily orders, so it is great that we do not have to worry about that anymore.”