What is the process of 'Flushing' of production lines?

Hello,

Anyone can help me in understanding the process of 'Flushing' of production lines?
We are producing dry feeds for animals and we have been asked to flush production lines with flour before production.

Regards,
Rudra

Hello,

Anyone can help me in understanding the process of 'Flushing' of production lines?
We are producing dry feeds for animals and we have been asked to flush production lines with flour before production.

Regards,
Rudra

Hi Rudra,

I am an independent technical consultant based in the UK and am currently working with a client to implement ISO22000 in their factory that manufactures animal feed supplements (not complete feeds) and have some information that might be help.

The aim of "flushing" is remove and reduce the levels of any other products (from previous production) that might be held up in the production line. For example, if you were adding certain additives eg aromas, flavouring, nutritional supplements that a customer did not want to be present in their products eg from a quality (eg aroma / taste) or food safety viewpoint eg nutritional supplements toxic to other species of animal, then the customer might ask you to "flush" the production lines.

Typically "flushing" of production lines is a process where a quantity of material is transported through the production line, from raw materials in-feed eg storage bin through the transport system, mixer and packing line. The material used for "flushing" is then collected and packed off into bags. This can then be sent to waste or used in other applications where any cross-contamination present is not a problem for the animals consuming this as part of their diet.

Hope this helps!

Good luck and Kindest Regards,
DP2006

Many thanks sir for you precious reply.
I really appreciate it.
grateful if you can tell me the amount of flushing material ( in my case its wheat flour) should be sent so that everything which had remained in the process gets removed.
Rudra

Many thanks sir for you precious reply.
I really appreciate it.
grateful if you can tell me the amount of flushing material ( in my case its wheat flour) should be sent so that everything which had remained in the process gets removed.
Rudra

You can't predict what quantity to use, it could be 250kg or 1000kg depending on the size of your production line.

If you are looking to remove a particular cross-contamination risk, you could chemically analyse sequential batches of production to see if you are getting carry over from one production run to the next.

You could then try one quantity of flushing material and again analyse batches before and after the flushing process to look for any carry over after the flushing process.

If the level of carry over is acceptable after the flushing then you can use that weight, otherwise you need to look at larger quantities.

Please note that you will not necessarily remove all carry over by a flushing process, as material can be held up eg dead spots in the processing line.

Hope this helps!
DP2006

^^^ That.

If the purpose of the flush is to remove material from the previous produciton run, you need to run the flush product until there is no previous material left. Otherwise, the flush has not done anything to help you.

Then there's the flush material itself. If you've been asked to flush your line with flour, I'm assuming a trace amount of flour in the first part of your production run is not an issue?