TENAX® proves its power again

May 2020

Walter Findlay Ltd (WFL) has huge success with Tenax 

The demand for Gluten-Free products has rapidly risen but it’s been a constant headache for some food processors.

Walter Findlay Ltd (WFL) is a fourth generation family owned Gisborne based company manufacturing bread, small goods and food coatings.

WFL supply batters and fresh dry breadcrumbs such as Panko coating from its Nelson food plant to the likes of Sealord and other food companies.

The company ultimately supplies fresh crumb destined for the Asian market, and the Nelson plant, is run under a critical hygiene program.

Every three months they do a production run of gluten free batters and breadcrumbs, which up until now has necessitated a three-day shut down to clean all equipment, before changing back to gluten products.

Nelson Site Manager Rodney Watson says with each gluten free product being made, the production downtime was a major drawback for the business.

“There was a significant cost in downtime, so we were continually looking for new ways of performing a clean, that would also give us a clear gluten free result.

“We wanted to work smarter and be more efficient in cleaning and ultimately more productive.

WFL Gisborne was a customer of Hygiene Technologies and during a discussion the issue at the Nelson plant was raised.

Hygiene Tech’s Bernard Senior suggested trialing Tenax as the preferred cleaning product, which was already proving its worth for other food producers.

TENAX® is a new generation product that can be used throughout a food processing plant or to specifically clean a more challenging problem.

The principle behind the TENAX® technology is that the chemical thickens when it is diluted to the correct percentage, clinging to surfaces far better than foaming chemicals, thoroughly wetting out the soiled surface and solubilising the soil.

When it comes to rinsing it off, the rinse water further dilutes the chemical, turning the film back to a thin, easily rinsable one that quickly flushes away.

Rodney and his team have been amazed of the results with Tenax.

The clean shut down has gone from three days to two. In fact the latest clean took just 19 hours and recorded a clear gluten free result after the first stage of the cleaning process.

Like other Tenax users, Rodney has looked at other difficult cleaning areas, where more remarkable results have occurred.

“We were also having some problems with hard to get to areas of our breadcrumb setting conveyor, where we cool the product down by 20 degrees and the results have been great.

“We also use it pretty much every week in the batter plant. With the foam you can really see it doing its work.

TENAX® is designed to give prolonged adherence to vertical and horizontal surfaces, thereby making full use of the chemical energy available.

The extended contact time of TENAX® leads to a superior cleaning/sanitation result which then reduces other inputs involved in cleaning, such as manual labour, hot water, and time.

TENAX® does most of the work for you, unlike traditional chemicals that rely on lots of agitation, rinse water and re-application of chemical to complete the cleaning task.

The TENAX® range is MPI and AsureQuality approved.

View information & case studies for the full TENAX® range

If you think you have a difficult cleaning problem that could benefit from Tenax or are keen to trial it as a daily heavy duty cleaner, contact us today.