Canaletas has received a certificate and congratulatory letter from EBWA praising the company’s commitment to the highest standards of quality and hygiene. This is the first POU cooler to have its hygiene/sanitisation system successfully tested by EBWA.
Protocol 3 involves the contamination of a cooler with water heavily dosed with a known standard strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and running the cooler with the contaminated water for two weeks to allow biofilm to develop.
The cooler is then sanitised and loaded with clean water and the water tested to see if Pseudomonas aeruginosa has been removed. The Canaletas system achieved this.
To then check that the Pseudomonas has been totally eliminated and cannot grow back, the cooler is run for a further two weeks to see if the Pseudomonas restablishes itself – a common problem with biofilms.
Once again, Canaletas scored, as there was no sign of the organism after two weeks running. This was no doubt helped by the Canaletas system of metal water contact surfaces. Metal is much less prone to biofilm than plastics. The smooth interior design of the internal waterways also means there is no place for Pseudomonas to hide and emerge later.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a frequent contaminant of tap water systems. Users of Canaletas POU coolers and the accompanying steamer system can rest assured that if the organism enters their coolers, it can be easily eliminated.
The steamer was run for seven minutes and internal temperatures reached 85°C within just 20 seconds.
In another test, a prototype of this cooler was run for over a year with the very hard Barcelona tap water, and then cut open to check for scaling. Scale was virtually nonexistent in the cold water system. This is important, as scale can contribute to and protect biofilm-based organisms as well as inhibit cooling.
The test results and methodology were evaluated by the independent EBWA Evaluation subcommittee.
This difficult and lengthy certification testing was carried out by Laboratorio Oliver Rodes, one of the few laboratories capable of carrying out the tests.
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