Summary

To prevent flavour and odor cross-contamination in finished beverages, intensive line-cleaning

regimes are required when changing from pungent to non-pungent flavour products. These

cleaning cycles typically required a lengthy hot 3-step or cold 4-step CIP. The duration of these

CIP processes typically average 120 minutes, Trustwater was challenged to test and validate its

innovative rapid ECA changeover protocol with the aim of reducing changeover times and to

provide the plant with a safe alternative to traditional chemicals. The objective was to enable the

plant to increase production and to move towards a ‘Just- In-Time’， lean manufacturing model.

Background

This study was carried out on a US based, 5-line Carbonated Soft Drink bottling plant which

consists of 16 syrup tanks, 2 can lines,3 PET lines and 1 Bag-In-Box line. The plant operates

24/7.This facility runs 800-900 pungent/sensitive changeovers per year.

Approach

Initially, a number of bench-top tests were performed and proved successfully in removing

pungent flavours from beakers and other selected surfaces . Following this initial success, a test

rig was designed to perform dynamic continuous flow tests, simulating typical plant CIP cleaning

conditions, These tested varying contact times, end-user products, dried-on materials and

different substrates. Trustwater subsequently connected a generator and skid platform to the CIP

system. The former 120 minute CIP protocol was replaced with a much shorter 3-step

Trustwater ECA protocol. The total duration of the new Trustwater 3-step pungent flavour

changeover was 20 minutes. In order for the company to approve use of the 3-step changeover,

it was necessary to validate as per the protocol below:

Protocol for Pungent Flavours Changeovers with Trustwater:

1. Clean and sanitize a production line in one step using Trustwater

2. To evaluate production line changeover effectiveness , test and document the following parameters:

3.Repeat steps 1 and 2 a total of 20 times to collect the required Trustwater changeover data

4.Submit data for Trustwater changeover sanitization approval

Results:

Following the trail and strict validation process it was evident that Trustwater had successfully

developed and implemented the first ECA pungent flavour changeover CIP, reducing individual

CIP times by an enormous 100 minutes.

Plant Benefits:

Pungent flavour changeover reduced from 120 minutes to 20 minutes

Increased production up-time by over 130000 minutes per annum

Labor saving of $242985 per annum

Increased water savings

Significant energy savings