Hygiene is essential in all food manufacturing with cleaning clearly a safety critical process. To address increasing risks, for example from allergens, cross contamination, evolving microbiological resilience, etc., the industry needs new capability which is not as highly dependent on error-prone manual procedures. Automation of cleaning needs suitable sensors to directly measure fouling real-time within process equipment. Following on from a successful feasibility study this project will progress through to the creation of industrially robust sensors and control equipment, install these on a functional production plant at a major UK-based food manufacturer and gather scientific data to hygienically validate the new disruptive innovation approach. We will develop algorithms to use the sensor output thereby creating a solution to autonomously self-optimise the industry standard clean-in-place (CIP) process. Not only will Self-Optimising Clean-in-Place (SOCIP) technology address safety risks and gaps in hygienic ‘due diligence’ within food manufacturing but it will also reduce time, waste and the environmental impact associated with one of the most common processes while creating a world leading capability for the UK food process equipment industry.

Cleaning of production lines is one of the most time consuming and costly stages of food and drink manufacturing. Cleaning is also one of the most inefficient stages as Clean in Place (CIP) systems are designed and commissioned for the worst case scenario. This is the food materials and operating conditions which are known to foul the equipment the most. In daily use this often results in the over cleaning of the production lines coming at a great expense to food manufacturers. This is primarily due to unnecessary line downtime and resource utilisation. This feasibility project will develop a small lab scale experimental rig and assess the potential of different online sensors and artificial intelligence to quantify the level of internal fouling and autonomously optimise the CIP process in real time. This technology will dramatically reduce the time, cost and environmental impact required for cleaning.blic Project Summary

Martec of Whitwell Ltd project engaging specialist knowledge of elastomer materials through the Innovation Voucher scheme of Innovate UK to help further develop their Marplug hygienic pig.