Strict Humidity Control Required in Food and Beverage Industry

In order to meet sanitation standards in the food and beverage industry, high hygiene standards are required.

That’s why the moisture content is so strictly controlled. Mold and bacteria can grow when humidity levels are too high, so strict humidity control is a key consideration for the manufacturing industry.

Moisture management affects the safety of packaged foods and affects consumers, as well.

Sometimes, when humidity levels are too low or too high, certain quality problems may occur during the manufacturing process. Manufacturing processes like cake and bread making, frying or drying of fruits, vegetables, seafood, etc., may result in unsatisfactory products.

As an example, fresh fruit juices are exposed to air after being pumped out of large tanks.

However, if there is not enough humidity control, bacteria will grow in the juice. This will lower the quality of the product and produce more expenses that could have been saved if there were appropriate humidity controllers. Something like a powerful commercial dehumidifier can fix that problem immediately!

In this post, we are going to be talking about how humidity can affect the food and beverage industry and how people are affected. What should we do about this?

 

A brief introduction to moisture

The air around us isn’t just air, and it’s a lot of moisture in it too. When water evaporates, it doesn’t just disappear. It hangs out in the air until it can condense back into a liquid form, and then the cycle continues.

Moisture is the amount of water there is in the air, which is also called “humidity.” While there is a good amount of humidity that the air needs to have, an excess of it can be a problem.

 

The negative effects of humidity

In many coastal cities, this situation is common, and uncontrolled humidity can lead to condensation, corrosion, and other hygiene problems.

In addition, high humidity can greatly affect people’s daily lives and make them feel uncomfortable. In the manufacturing industry, it’s very expensive to eliminate the consequences, and high humidity can damage electronics and machinery.

The factory owner has to shut down and repair the machines. More importantly, the high humidity can corrode devices. This results in a delay in the dispatch date, or the extra humidity can grow mold and bacteria, affecting the quality of the products.

So both can have a significant impact on the company’s reputation and profitability.

 

How to measure humidity

Even though your body can naturally feel an excess of humidity, just “feeling” it isn’t an accurate measure.

To measure humidity accurately, you will need to get a hygrometer. It can detect just how much water vapor has made it into the environment instantly.

 

Why is measuring humidity in Food and Beverage Industries so important?

Humidity control is an important task for the manufacturing industry because it can effectively control mold and bacteria.

By controlling the dew point, humidity can be effectively controlled. Humidity and temperature are two variables that can change depending on the climate and environment if you don’t manually intervene and control them.

However, these two variables have a significant impact on the quality of the products and directly affect sales. The brewing process requires different temperatures at different stages of production, making it difficult to control the ideal humidity.

This leads to condensation forming on the surface of the pipes, accessories, and the cold surface of the machine, which can corrode the equipment. It can be a big challenge for product manufacturing to meet hygiene standards.

Turning on the air conditioning is the conventional method to reduce humidity. However, it costs a lot of energy and cannot get to the root of the problem. Moreover, the cost of repairing and maintaining the machines is high.

 

Impact on product quality

Humidity works in a very simple way. It’s floating moisture. So whenever it comes in direct contact with something lacking moisture, it’ll try to soak as much of it as it can.

If your facility holds drier problems that shouldn’t come in contact with anything wet, make sure you keep it away from moisture; otherwise, it’ll soak up too much moisture and might end up getting spoiled entirely.

 

Impact on workers’ health and safety

Humidity is extremely uncomfortable to work in. There doesn’t seem to be enough oxygen to go around even though there is. Since moisture is heavier than air, it gets in the way and messes with everything.

If your workers have to work in humid areas, they will start to sweat excessively, which might lead to dehydration, overheating, drowsiness, and clumsiness, to name a few. The fresher the air, the easier it’ll be to live!

 

The most common way to prevent excessive humidity in processing plants

Using a dehumidifier is the most common way to prevent excessive humidity. ALORAIR is an American brand specializing in water damage restoration and dehumidification equipment production and sale.

We can provide a wide range of dehumidifiers, such as crawl space dehumidifiers, a basement, and a commercial dehumidifier.

So, you can choose a suitable machine for your specific purpose. What’s even better is that, if you are unsure which machine suits you, you can ask our service center for help.

Our dehumidifier can fast-dry and dehumidify efficiently, and it has a WiFi control system, pre-cooling technology, and automatic regulation system. Therefore, it can dry and purify the air and remove the musty smell that often comes with humidity. Not only that, but it can also filter contaminated particles and allergens, prevent bacterial growth, sanitize molds without using chemicals, and prevent the machine from corrosion and rust.

It can also reduce the cost of repair and maintenance and ensure the quality and quantity of products that can be produced to maintain the enterprise’s reputation. So, if your industry is suffering humidity damage, we highly recommend investing in a dehumidifier that ensures the product can consistently be profitable.

If you have any questions about our products or dehumidification-related issues, please feel free to contact us so together, we can come to a conclusion that will help get rid of your problem permanently!