Hygiene and the eradication of food bourn pathogens and food spoilage micro-organisms including bacteria, fungi, yeasts and viruses is a major issue to the food industry. Elimination of the bioburden in a food manufacturing plant exceeding required standards especially where there is an environmental contamination issue with a known food pathogen or spoilage organism is a pre-requisite. The provision of microbiologically safe food is paramount to meet the needs of the food manufacturer’s regulators including Environmental Health and the FSA (Food Standards Agency), as well as the supermarkets themselves who regularly audit suppliers, and food law. BIOQUELL’s low temperature, residue-free bio-decontamination technology is ideally suited for the bio-remediation of food manufacturing or food preparation facilities provided as a decontamination service or as purchased bio-decontamination equipment:

Excellent, well-documented microbiological efficacy.
BIOQUELL’s unique hydrogen peroxide vapor (HPV) technology is highly efficacious against bacteria, viruses, yeast and fungi including, but not limited to:

• Listeria monocytogene
• Escherichia coli
• Staphylococcus aureus
• Salmonella spp.
• Enterococcus sp.
• Clostridium sp.
• Serratia sp.
• Aspergillus sp.
• Pseudomonas spp.
• Yeasts and fungi (inc. Pseudomonas aeruginosa)
• Gram-negative bacteria

BIOQUELL is able to provide detailed microbiological efficacy documents as well as expertise to assist with the eradication of a particular pathogen;

3D, repeatable decontamination – even in challenging sites.
The hydrogen peroxide vapor reaches areas manual cleaning is often unable to access (particularly at high levels). The microbiological level of remediation achieved with BIOQUELL’s hydrogen peroxide vapor technology is far greater than that achieved by manual cleaning. BIOQUELL’s approach provides  repeatable, validatable, thorough 3 dimensional decontamination to all exposed surfaces;
 

Fast process – short down time – reduced opportunity cost.
The process is fast – and production time is money. Following equipment set up, high levels of microbiological decontamination are achieved in minutes – hence the overall deployment times are measured in hours. This means that the down time for manufacturing facilities can be extremely short. Given the cost of manufacturing, it is often substantially more cost effective for BIOQUELL to decontaminate the environment in a matter of hours – compared to a “deep clean” crew working for days (with the associated lost production revenues and lower bioburden reduction). BIOQUELL are flexible so environmental remediation can take place at a time that suits the client to further minimise disruption to production;
 

Large volume decontamination with excellent material compatibility
BIOQUELL has an impressive and long standing track record of deploying its hydrogen peroxide vapor technology into the life sciences (pharmaceutical, biotechnology, biomedical, research) and healthcare sectors dealing with unwanted organisms. These areas almost certainly contain sensitive electronic equipment which can remain in the area during the decontamination process without degradation of functionality or aesthetics;
  

Decontamination process verified with the regulatory “gold standard”.
The unique BIOQUELL bio-decontamination process is verified using Tyvek pouched 6 log Geobacillus stearothermophilus spore biological indicators – which is the FDA “gold standard” used widely in the life sciences sector. These biological indicators give the client tangible evidence that the decontamination process has worked – and the results of the biological inactivation are contained within a detailed report supplied by BIOQUELL, thus satisfying food regulatory contamination control requirements from bodies such as the FSA (Food Standards Agency) and Environmental Health;
 

Residue-free bio-decontamination: by-products are water vapor and oxygen.
At the end of the decontamination process, the hydrogen peroxide vapor is rapidly broken down over a proprietary catalyst – to water vapor and oxygen. Hence the process leaves no harmful or problematic residues – and hence is ideal for the food industry.
 

Food manufacturing / food preparation sector expertise.
Bioburden has become a larger, more high profile and potentially vastly expensive problem for the food sector over recent years. BIOQUELL has discretely assisted a number of food manufacturing and food preparation companies in North America and Europe. Most of BIOQUELL’s work has been involved in ultra discrete, rapid deployment emergency decontamination services but BIOQUELL can also offer a scheduled bio-decontamination option;
 

Peace of mind – worldwide bio-decontamination experts.
BIOQUELL’s technology – both its service decontamination solution and equipment bio-decontamination offering – is used to decontaminate hospitals, pharmaceutical, biotechnology and other life science organisations everyday around the world. And most of these industries are subject to a high level of regulation. BIOQUELL has also assisted a number of food manufacturing / food preparation companies over recent years. Over the last ten years BIOQUELL has developed unique bio-decontamination “savoir faire” and technological expertise / experience. Accordingly, BIOQUELL is able to deploy a highly professional and experienced team to assist the food industry with the new challenges it is facing.

BIOQUELL provides a range of decontamination solutions – from its ultra discrete, rapid deployment “emergency bio-decontamination service” to scheduled decontaminations to coincide with annual shut downs. In addition BIOQUELL sells a wide range of hydrogen peroxide vapor decontamination equipment for environmental remediation. And some clients use both BIOQUELL equipment - for high risk, high periodicity areas needing residue-free and effective decontamination – as well as BIOQUELL’s unique service for both emergency decontamination and annual shutdown decontaminations.

Contact BIOQUELL if you would like to discuss how its technology could assist you in the food industry: our experts would be happy to have a discrete discussion to explain further how BIOQUELL’s unique, low temperature, highly efficacious and residue-free bio-decontamination technology is ideally suited for the increasing microbiological challenges facing the food industry around the world.