Wow that’s a smart gel!

May 2020

“Wow, how clever is that!” has been the reaction to a Smart Gel that visually confirms if a surface is clean or not.

It doesn’t necessarily matter how visually clean a surface looks, there still can be a risk of contamination.

Hygiene Technologies are introducing TM Smart Gel into New Zealand and believe that it will transform the way Quality Assurance Staff validate food preparation surfaces are 100 percent clean.

The TM Smart Gel, which is designed for the food and beverage industry, will be revealed at the Foodtech Packtech Trade Show in Auckland on September 22-23 but in initial trials, it’s already proved to be a winner for Westland Milk Products in Hokitika.

“We didn’t have to take a swab and then put it in a meter to be analysed. We just sprayed the gel and if it detected any contamination, it changed colour straight away so we could sort the problem immediately.

“It is going to be an excellent external visual tool for our operators during 5S Hygiene assessments,” says Quality and Compliance Leader, Gene Honey.

Presently Westland Milk utilises ATP and APC swabs for validating both external surfaces and accessible CIP locations, while 5S assessments are conducted solely by operator visual assessment.

Hygiene Technologies marketing manager Nathan Senior says now with the TM Smart Gel the results are instant and ensure that there is little or no production downtime.

After the surface has been cleaned, the gel is sprayed and within seconds, the gel changes colour to green if it detects any contamination or yellow if the surface is heavily contaminated.

Nathan says there are significant benefits of the gel that stands it apart from the more traditional detection process.

Firstly it’s quick and easy to use and detect. As a spray it enables you to test a larger surface area, so you get a better picture of the situation than a 10 x 10cm swab size. It’s very sensitive and is up to 1000 times more accurate in detecting some common types of food residue than ATP is, and will also detect far more than biofilms.

 

“It will detect and react with all organic substances which means not only food residues and micro-organisms, but also flavor taints and surfactant residues, which no traditional method will do. This is important to ensure total food safety.

“Lastly, the gel is also a powerful cleaning agent, so by attacking and exposing the contamination, the ‘picture’ revealed is a lot more meaningful than a swab that just lightly touches the surface,” Nathan says.

Another advantage is that it’s actually more affordable while at the same time optimising production.

“There’s no longer any waiting around for results. You can spray the gel, detect and clean, or if the surface has the all clear, you can rinse it off and continue production.

“This is definitely going to revolutionize the screening of surfaces. It’s really exciting,” Nathan adds.

Hygiene Technologies will be demonstrating TM Smart Gel at the trade show. Make sure you get to Stand 2022, you will be impressed!

The TM Smart Gel is further evidence of Hygiene Technologies relentless pursuit in providing the most effective cleaning solutions for the food industry.