1-805-484-2992

Quotes - Engineering - Sales

Food Products Heat Exchangers

Specifically designed for food and beverage processing, our high quality heat exchangers employ a variety of technologies and materials to deliver safe and effective transfer of energy between your utility and process fluids. One of the key applications includes pasteurization, where the exchanger heats food to eliminate pathogens, then quickly cools it to halt the process and maintain quality and safety.

  • Shell & Tube: Our food grade shell and tube heat exchangers ensure optimal thermal performance, sanitation, and durability, tailored for rigorous food industry standards.
  • Plate & Frame: Plate and frame heat exchangers provide excellent thermal efficiency, easy maintenance, and hygiene, ideal for food processing applications requiring precise temperature control.
  • Clean in Place (CIP): CIP clean-in-place heat exchangers streamline food processing by allowing efficient, automated cleaning without disassembly, ensuring hygiene and reducing downtime.
  • Milk & Dairy: Milk and pasteurization heat exchangers maintain product safety by controlling temperatures, ensuring pathogen elimination, and preserving nutritional quality.
  • Viscous Foods: Thick food products can often present design challanges, but our complete line of products provide solutions for almost any fluid.
  • Alcohol: Our alcohol, brewing, and distillation heat exchangers range in size, material, and customization options to fit any application.
Shell & Tube:
Sanitary Applications
  • Evaporators & Condensors
  • Clean-in-Place
  • Stock and Custom Units Available
Shell and Tube
Plate & Frame:
Sanitary Applications
  • Brewery & Distillery
  • Food & Beverage
  • Dairy Pasteurization
Plate and Frame

Sanitary Heat Exchanger for Food Industry

Another application is the chilling of products post-cooking to meet safety standards by rapidly reducing temperatures to limit bacterial growth. In confectionery manufacturing, heat exchangers are utilized to carefully temper ingredients like chocolate, ensuring the product solidifies with the desired crystalline structure and properties. Brewing and dairy industries also rely on these systems for efficient thermoregulation during fermentation and milk processing to maintain desired consistency and prolong shelf life.

Food Grade Materials

Food heat exchangers must adhere to stringent hygiene regulations, which dictate the regularity and thoroughness of cleaning cycles. Their design often features stainless steel components for corrosion resistance and ease of sanitation. The customization of heat exchangers to fit specific processing requirements ensures operational efficiency and energy conservation, contributing significantly to the optimization of food production processes. This specificity facilitates the industrial sector's ability to meet both consumer demands and regulatory requirements, highlighting the importance of these systems in maintaining the balance between productivity and product integrity.

Heat Exchangers in the Food Industry

Heat exchangers play diverse roles in the food industry, from refining cooking oil to maintaining appropriate temperatures for pasteurization, or heating soups and sauces. Adhering to strict health and safety standards in food production, heat exchanger design and manufacturing quality are paramount. For instance, milk requires heating for pasteurization, then rapid cooling to prevent spoilage. Similarly, other liquids like cooling oil and condiments need specific temperature processing to maintain taste and purity. Moreover, heat exchangers enhance energy conservation. As in milk pasteurization, the heat exchanger enables warm and cold milk to interact within the assembly without any mixture.

Custom-Tailored Solutions

Although the food industry demands high safety and quality standards, there's a scarcity of dedicated food-grade heat exchangers. Most used are not specifically designed for the sector, which may have economical benefits initially but potential challenges later. These industrial heat exchangers could previously be used for hazardous substances, lacking appropriate cleanliness for the food industry. Implementing these in food production might lead to contamination, spoilage, interrupted production, and costly replacements.

Food-grade exchangers can integrate effortlessly with existing systems, regulate temperature precisely without disrupting operations, and modify as per different food requirements. These sanitary devices adhere to strict safety and cleanliness standards, making them ideal for an industry increasingly scrutinized by consumers for safety. In a competitive industry with slim margins, food-grade exchangers help eliminate cross-contamination risk and focus on production expansion.


Common FAQs

A food-grade heat exchanger is a specialized device designed to facilitate heat transfer in food processing efficiently and meet the strict hygiene and safety standards required in the food and beverage industry. A heat exchanger in the food industry is used to heat or cool food products while maintaining product quality and preventing contamination. The materials and design of food-grade heat exchangers ensure they comply with FDA or USDA food safety regulations, and meet requirements for sanitation and cleanability.

Food heat exchangers are used across a variety of processes in the food and beverage industry to regulate temperature and ensure product safety. Here are some of the common uses:

  • Pasteurization: Heat exchangers, like plate heat exchangers, are widely used to heat milk, juice, and other liquid products to specific temperatures to kill harmful pathogens while preserving flavor and nutrients.
  • Sterilization: Food heat exchangers are used to sterilize products like canned foods, sauces, and soups. This process involves heating food to higher temperatures to eliminate microorganisms and extend shelf life.
  • Cooling: Heat exchangers are used to rapidly cool products after pasteurization or cooking, preventing bacterial growth. This is commonly used for dairy products, beverages, and sauces.
  • Freezing: Scraped-surface heat exchangers are used in ice cream manufacturing, where they help cool the product while maintaining a smooth texture by scraping the freezing surface to prevent ice crystal formation.
  • Heating Viscous Products: For thicker products like creams, yogurts, or jams, tubular or scraped-surface heat exchangers are used to evenly heat the product without compromising texture.
  • Beverage Industry: In breweries and soft drink production, heat exchangers are essential for temperature control during fermentation, carbonation, and pasteurization of beverages.
  • Chocolate and Confectionery: Heat exchangers help maintain precise temperature control during processes like tempering chocolate, ensuring proper consistency and preventing crystallization.

Here are some of the common types of food heat exchangers used in the food and beverage industry:

  • Plate Heat Exchangers (PHE): The application of a plate heat exchanger in the food industry is important for pasteurization. Thin metal plates with narrow channels allow fluids to pass and transfer heat efficiently between hot and cold fluids. A hygienic plate heat exchanger is ideal for rapid heating and cooling liquids like milk, juice, and sauces.
  • Tubular Heat Exchangers: Used for more viscous products like yogurt, cream, or soups, tubular heat exchangers consist of tubes within a larger shell where one fluid flows inside the tube and another outside. They handle thicker fluids without clogging.
  • Scraped-Surface Heat Exchangers: These are designed for products that are more likely to stick to surfaces, such as ice cream, chocolate, or butter. Rotating blades scrape the heated surface to prevent buildup, ensuring consistent heat transfer and product texture.
  • Shell and Tube Heat Exchangers: Similar to tubular heat exchangers, this type is used for products with higher viscosity. A bundle of tubes is housed inside a cylindrical shell, and fluids flow in opposite directions to facilitate heat exchange.
  • Alcohol Heat Exchangers: Alcohol heat exchangers are used to efficiently transfer heat during production and distillation, ensuring precise temperature control for fermentation and cooling.
  • Clean-in-Place (CIP): CIP heat exchangers allow automatic, thorough cleaning without the need to disassemble the equipment. This ensures sanitation and hygiene in food and beverage production by using cleaning solutions that circulate through the heat exchanger, removing residue and preventing contamination.

Clean-in-place (CIP) food heat exchangers provide important benefits in food processing for hygiene and efficiency:

  • Improved Hygiene and Safety: A CIP sanitary heat exchanger ensures thorough cleaning of equipment without disassembly, meeting stringent food safety standards and preventing contamination.
  • Reduced Downtime: Cleaning is performed without the need to dismantle equipment, minimizing production interruptions.
  • Cost-Effective: CIP reduces manual labor, uses controlled amounts of cleaning agents and water, and prolongs equipment lifespan by minimizing wear and tear.
  • Consistent and Thorough Cleaning: Automated systems provide uniform and repeatable cleaning cycles, ensuring sanitary heat exchangers, even in difficult-to-reach areas.
  • Regulatory Compliance: CIP systems help food facilities comply with health and safety regulations by ensuring regular and effective cleaning processes.

Quote Request Form:

Questions?

1-805-484-2992

Quotes - Engineering - Sales
Heat Exchangers
Markets
LINKS
CONTACT

© 2024 SanitaryExchangers.com | All rights reserved.