If you produce or plan to produce canned products, such as canned meat, fish, vegetables, baby food, sausages in plastic packaging, and you want to do it efficiently and effectively, you should consider the following criteria:
- The product must be good, of high quality and safe. Sugar corn, beans in sweet and sour sauce, tomatoes in their own juice, juicy pieces of chicken in the filling - everything should look bright, fresh and appetising
- Minimise energy consumption for sterilisation, as this is a significant component of product cost
- Reduce packaging costs
- Reduce water consumption for process needs as much as possible.
How do you meet all these criteria?
Product safety comes first. To ensure reliable sterilisation, the distribution of the set sterilisation/pasteurisation temperature inside the autoclave must be uniform, with a deviation of 1 degree or less between the packages of product placed in the autoclave. It is also important not to overcook the product! This will not only waste expensive energy, but also turn a crispy snack cucumber into a soft, plastic, tasteless one, and bright orange zucchini caviar into a dull, brown paste. The consumer always chooses the brightest product!
Steriflow autoclaves (France) provide a temperature distribution with a deviation of only 0.5 degrees between product packages, which maintains the bright colour and desired consistency.
How?
These autoclaves use the "water cascade" technology, which means that superheated water irrigates the batch of product loaded into the autoclave as if it were a shower. Thanks to the pressure maintenance system inside the autoclave, the water temperature reaches the set values required for sterilisation/pasteurisation, and the integrity of lightweight polymer packages, retort bags, which can burst when the sterilisation chamber cools down without a pneumatic pressure control system, is preserved. Most importantly, the superheated steam from the boiler does not enter the Steriflow autoclave directly, but instead gives its energy to hot water through a special all-welded Platular® heat exchanger, and it is the superheated water that cascades over the loaded canned food. This is a major advantage - after the heating cycle, you can easily feed cold water into the heat exchanger instead of steam, and thus recover a significant proportion of the heat! This heat can be used to preheat a new batch of canned food before loading it into the autoclave, or to heat cleaning solutions, boiler feed water, etc. Each additional degree of heating of a batch of product before loading into the autoclave saves 0.78% of the steam required to sterilise the product. Do not waste heat when cooling the autoclave and you will save up to 42% of gas or electricity, which is proven by research.
Thanks to the "water cascade" technology, Steriflow autoclaves work with all types of packaging - glass and cans, retort packs, etc. Uniform heating and cooling thanks to the Platular® heat exchanger eliminates thermal shock, which is dangerous for glass jars, and sterilises the batch perfectly evenly!
For the technologist, the Steriflow autoclave is a real convenience, as the MPI Expert control panel is used to control the unit, which allows you to easily set all the parameters of the heating/cooling cycles, and the batch history is stored and always available for monitoring or checking according to HACCP requirements. This makes Steriflow equipment easy to trace batches of product.
Looking for the most productive equipment?
Please note that Steriflow autoclaves are available in different versions: Steriflow Static® with a rotating drum, Steriflow Rotary® for gentle mixing of the product during sterilisation, or Steriflow Shaka® with a special system for vigorous shaking of the product!
SteriflowShaka® autoclaves with water cascade technology and an all-welded heat exchanger are the pinnacle of engineering. Not only is the product irrigated with superheated water, but it is also shaken horizontally by a special mechanism that accelerates heat transfer inside the packaging by up to several times! The oscillation frequency of the basket with the loaded product is up to 150 rpm. The basket design ensures the integrity of the glass packaging during shaking, which has been proven over the years of operation of such autoclaves in the EU. The results are impressive: for example, the sterilisation time for green peas was reduced by 6.7 times, which saved both energy and product colour.
The brighter colour of shaking sterilisation (left) is achieved by reducing the sterilisation time by a factor of several.
Steiner-Ukraine is the official representative of Steriflow. Therefore, if you want to expand, modernise or create a completely new production of canned fruit, vegetables, meat or fish, don't hesitate to contact us! French Steriflow autoclaves operate reliably in Ukraine: They are used for sterilisation of canned vegetables (Agrospetsproekt LLC) and production of such delicacies as foie gras (Myronivsky Hliboproduct), canned fish (Prolyv TM), condensed milk (Ovruchsky Dairy), crab sticks in polymeric packaging (Aquavit TM, Vodniy Mir TM), pet food (Gav TM, Meow TM, Club 4 Paws TM). The capabilities of autoclaves are not limited to sterilisation, they can also be used for cooking!
We have been a reliable, competent and responsible partner for Ukrainian entrepreneurs for many years and also supply professional pumping equipment for pumping tomato pastes, purees, liquids with pieces and other products. The stainless steel pumps in the so-called "hygienic" version have polished surfaces, which makes them easy to clean after pumping food. The lower the bacterial contamination of the product, the shorter the sterilisation time required, which also saves energy.
Working clean is always profitable!
Call us now and we will help you to estimate the energy consumption per one thousand standard cans according to the UNIDO methodology, which will help you to understand how energy efficient your processes are and what equipment you need. With Steiner-Ukraine, you will always receive qualified and useful advice. We take every task with responsibility, and we are sincerely ready to help you make your company energy efficient and profitable!