Food Processing
Leybold’s vacuum technology enhances the preservation of food products by greatly minimizing the risk of contamination, thereby extending their shelf life.
Significant Reduction of Food Contamination risks
Food processing encompasses the various stages of converting raw ingredients into consumable food items, ranging from concentrated fruit juices and pre-packaged meat sausages to freeze-dried coffee and instant meals. Vacuum technology is frequently required for diverse properties, although applications may involve challenges like hot gases, vapours, liquid surges, and soft particles, which can be tough on vacuum pumps. Leybold offers a comprehensive range of durable products designed to efficiently handle these demanding conditions.
In numerous food processing plants, particularly those dealing with meat, vacuum technology is used to convey waste products from the production line to storage tanks for subsequent utilization. Vacuum is also applied in the cleaning of animal carcasses, occasionally combined with steam, or in the evisceration of chickens. These applications typically involve continuous high working pressures and the risk of pump contamination by water or by the ingress of small meat and fat pieces. While oil-sealed rotary vane pumps may face challenges under these conditions, our CLAWVAC pumps and CLAWVAC systems CPI are specifically designed to excel in such demanding environments.
Tumbling, mixing, and massaging processes are utilized in the preparation of meat, fish, and seafood to enhance or introduce flavors, tastes, colors, weight, preservation, texture, and more. These processes leverage a combination of vacuum, pressure, heat, and mechanical actions to enable defrosting, marinating, curing, cooking, and cooling operations. The wide variety of recipes presents various challenges for vacuum pumps, including the risk of contamination. For less intensive applications, our SOGEVAC series offers an economical solution. Our NOVADRY and CLAWVAC models are designed to significantly reduce ownership costs in more demanding scenarios, even serving as alternatives to liquid ring pumps. Our HYGEN range, featuring stainless-steel enclosures, allows for the placement of pumps directly in the production area, cutting down on the expenses associated with extensive piping.
For larger scale operations that require total vacuum
stuffing,including hopper filling, our NOVADRY series offers a more advantageous cost of ownership, making it a superior choice for these applications.
Vacuum cooling stands out from conventional
cooling methods by enabling faster cooling of
food items. This technique is especially
beneficial for leafy vegetables, like lettuce
and spinach, and can also be applied
to more demanding items such as sushi rice or bread.
The key benefits of vacuum cooling include reduced energy
usage, rapid cooling times, and a notable extension of
the products’ shelf life.
The effectiveness of vacuum cooling relies heavily on
the vacuum pumps’ ability to handle high pumping speeds
and tolerate water vapor.
Our SOGEVAC, NOVADRY, and DRYVAC series are
specifically designed
to meet these critical requirements, ensuring
optimal performance in
vacuum cooling processes.
Drying and freeze drying
(starting from frozen product and using sublimation
phenomena) are dehydration methods to remove water
from the product and extend the shelf life including
storage at ambient temperature.
There is a wide variety of food drying processes and Leybold
provides an appropriate vacuum solution
starting from NEO D for small domestic freeze dryers
to compact SOGEVAC / RUVAC systems for bigger industrial production.
Most demanding production lines use our nearly maintenance-free dry screw pumps such as NOVADRY,
DRYVAC or the unique on-site cleanable SCREWLINE.
Degassing or deaeration, the process of extracting dissolved gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide from beverages, serves various purposes, including extending product shelf life.
