A team effort by university researchers and two companies has resulted in
application of a more efficient way to use the massive amounts of water
required to process turkeys. The new system uses ozone, a highly reactive
form of oxygen, to recycle water in the plants.
The Cargill, Inc., Honeysuckle White turkey processing plant in Springdale,
Ark., is the site of the procedure that has been developed with Food Safety
Consortium researchers at the University of Arkansas and engineers at American
Water Purification, Inc., of Wichita, Kan. Water is used to chill turkey
carcasses at the plants. Chill water quickly lowers the body temperature
of processed turkeys, so quickly that microorganisms have limited opportunities
to grow.
One gallon of water is required to process each turkey going through the
chill water processing. With turkeys going through the process all day long
and new water replacing the water that is discharged after chilling, a turkey
plant can use a tremendous amount of water.
Recycling the water obviously saves water. In addition, the system allows
the user to save on energy, sewer and pretreatment costs, explained Mark
Baldwin of AWPI. When the water makes its first entry into the system, it
must be chilled to 34 degrees Fahrenheit. Depending on the outdoor air temperature,
the water temperature could initially be from the lower 50s to the 70s,
thus requiring a major expenditure of energy to cool the incoming water.
Recycled water has already gone through the initial major cooling process
and needs only to be reduced by a couple of degrees as it makes subsequent
trips through the process.
Once a supply of water has been used, it passes through a mechanical pretreatment
and then four ozonation cylinders. Ozone gas is pumped into the cylinders
to further clarify the water and kill microorganisms. Ozone kills bacteria
3,000 times faster than chlorine. Depending upon the quality of incoming
water, the processors adj
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Contact: Dave Edmark
dedmark@comp.uark.edu
501-575-5647
Food Safety Consortium
15-Jul-1996