Pseudomonas remediation in a new industrial bakery in 2 steps: a shock disinfection, followed by continuous water disinfection and biofilm prevention
Pseudomonas remediation in an industrial bakery
Situation: During a routine analysis of the softened water in an industrial bakery in Wallonia, a Pseudomonas contamination was detected. This contamination was quite unexpected given that it concerned a completely new department and there had never been any water quality problems in the old section. On closer inspection, it turned out that a biofilm had been able to develop in a very short time. The reason for this was twofold. On the one hand, the new pipes had been filled with water for a considerable time before production actually started. On the other hand, the installation is dimensioned so that production can eventually be doubled without having to expand the sanitary network.
Although a potential contamination of their products was eliminated by the baking process, the bakery decided to address the problem quickly. Given that it was clearly a biofilm-related contamination, they chose the solutions of Konax BV on the advice of their quality consultant.
As a first step, we organised a shock disinfection of the entire water network. This direct approach immediately resulted in a considerable decrease in the number of contaminated tapping points. (see Figure 1: "Effect of shock disinfection").
After the shock disinfection, we subsequently started a continuous treatment of the water circuit with our fully automatic monitoring and disinfection unit, the Konax® Prodis. Thanks to the post-treatment, small pieces of non-flushed biofilm containing Pseudomonas are prevented from causing re-contamination.
A temporary stop of the treatment manifested itself in an increased Pseudomonas concentration at 2 tapping points. (see Figure 1: "temporary stop disinfection"). This indicates that remnants of contaminated biofilm were still present on these lines. When the post-treatment was restarted, the situation was quickly brought back under control. The dosing during post-treatment respects the drinking water standard at all times so that the water can be used safely.
Although a Pseudomonas contamination can be very persistent, this combined approach ensured a 100% Pseudomonas-free water circuit within the set timeframe.
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