Application field
Beverage Production
Real-time monitoring of the microbiological quality in bottled water, spring water, mineral water, and other beverages
Ensuring consistent oversight of microbiological quality throughout the entire production process.
Bottled Water – Product Quality Control
Microbiological contamination poses a serious threat to bottling companies, leading to costly repercussions and potential harm to customers.
Your solution:
Use the ColiMinder for fully automatic monitoring of microbiological water quality in real time throughout the bottling process, particularly:
– It effectively monitors the performance of every process step from raw water to water purification, and at critical control points. If contamination exceeds safe limits, the ColiMinder promptly alerts the responsible teams.
– Microbial contamination can arise particularly through filters and membranes which often act as a souce of process inherent contamination. Monitor the integrity of filters and membranes with the ColiMinder!
– Timely clean-in-place (CIP) processes are crucial, but traditional tests are too slow. ColiMinder provides an evidence-based parameter for decision-making when to CIP!
With the ColiMinder, you can act swiftly based on real-time data.
This technology is applicable across various production types, including mineral water, soft drinks, and dairy products.
Picture on the left: At Romaqua Group’s mineral water plant in Bușteni, Romania, the ColiMinder exemplifies proactive quality management, ensuring safety and compliance while enhancing production efficiency.
How does it work?
The ColiMinder measures the specific enzymatic activity of the target organisms present in the sample.
The measured enzymatic activity is a scientifically defined parameter and correlates directly with the amount of organisms present in the sample – only living organisms express enzymes but not only cultivable organisms do so!
The measured activity directly indicates the microbiological quality of the water.
How Do I Use the ColiMinder?
ColiMinder revolutionizes the way we monitor critical control points in beverage production by enabling an on-line monitoring of any process step.
The measurement timeline feature shows any shifts in microbial contamination, delivering precise and invaluable insights that were previously out of reach.
With ColiMinder, microbiological water quality is now a key parameter for process control, as results that are available in real time.
Additionally, you receive instant alerts when predefined microbiological contamination thresholds are surpassed. ColiMinder has demonstrated its effectiveness in assessing the microbial quality of your water bottling process, regardless of the types of microbes involved.
It reliably identifies all forms of contamination, from bacteria like E. coli and coliforms to Pseudomonas, as well as algae, mold, yeast, and biofilm. To further enhance reliability and stability in sampling and results, we offer a range of add-on modules. Plus, alongside automatic monitoring, the option to introduce grab samples is also available.
How do I use the results?
The measured enzymatic activity of the sample provides a direct answer to the question: “how high is the microbiological contamination of the sample?”.
Depending on the reagent used, the measurement results are specific for the corresponding target organism.
The results not only provide direct quantitative information about the microbial contamination of the sample, but shape and course of the measurement timeline also contain valuable information about the dynamics of the microbiological load and thus allow conclusions to be drawn about the causes of changes.
Sensitivity
A recent scientific study published in Water Research shows that the ColiMinder is the most sensitive instrument available on the market for monitoring microbial quality of water. Please see: Favere, J., Waegenaar, F., Boon, N., & De Gusseme, B. (2021). Online microbial monitoring of drinking water: How do different techniques respond to contaminations in practice?, published in Water Research Journal .
Reliability
The reliability of the ColiMinder has been demonstrated in several installations where the devices have been providing reliable measurement results in continuous operation since 2015.
Maintenance:
Thanks to the sophisticated system for fully automatic cleaning and calibration, the maintenance effort is limited to refilling the consumables. Replacement of the silicone hoses is recommended every other year, no further maintenance is required.
Robustness
The ColiMinder can measure any type of sample without pre-treatment.
It has no problem with suspended solids or turbid samples. Even fluctuating background fluorescence has no effect on the measurement result.
Its robustness towards environmental influences, like temperature or humidity is evident in installations like Stonecutter Island Sewage Treatment Plant in Hong Kong, where it has been monitoring effluent 24/7 since 2017 without any issues.
It has got an IP65 protected housing, and it can measure in the temperature range from 0°C to 40°C.
Can I do compliance testing with the ColiMinder?
The ColiMinder provides operational monitoring as recommended by the WHO, the EU Drinking Water Directive and others.
Real-time measurement of actual microbiological quality enables rapid response and correction, so the ColiMinder helps you to meet specified limits at the lowest cost and with the highest level of safety.
A correlation between standard lab results and ColiMinder results can be established and used internally but the system is not intended to replace compliance testing.
Can ColiMinder results be expressed in CFU ?
In contrast to classical culture-based laboratory methods, which are based on the cultivation of bacteria, the enzymatic measurement method of the ColiMinder is based on the direct measurement of the metabolic activity of the target organisms. There is therefore no direct and generally valid conversion between the two methods.
In general, however, a correlation table can be created through comparative measurements, which can then be used for conversion.
Benefits
Real-time warnings
In case of contamination events in the production line
Safeguard your product quality
during entire production process
Evidence-based decision-making to CIP
based on real-time knowledge about microbial quality in your system
Check your final product
prior to dispatch – in only 15 minutes instead of days
Identify contamination sources
easy and fast
Increase efficiency and safety in injection water treatment
Adjust treatment intensity to actual contamination
References
In the lab of a huge beverage production plant in Germany – adding a real-time parameter to the lab protocols
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ColiMinder monitoring production process at a beverage bottling plant
ColiMinder “Timo” installed at Romaqua’s mineral water bottling plant in Borsec (Romania), monitoring microbial quality of two mineral water wells: one for still water and one for naturally carbonated water.
The ColiMinder “Ida” in South Africa, installed in a soft drink bottling plant, helping to detect sources of recurring microbiological contaminations in the bottling process.
Example: Measurement Results of different water qualities in beverage production
The ColiMinder was used to measure samples of different water qualities, as is common in beverage production.
The results show a clear differentiation between different water qualities.
Of particular note is that all results are below the detection limit of the conventional culture method at 1 CFU/ml.
ColiMinder use cases
proven by customers!
The ColiMinder microbiological analyzer can be installed at any stage of the water bottling process for real-time monitoring of microbiological contamination.
Raw water intake (municipal, groundwater, wells)
Storage tanks
Critical Control Points
Injection Water
Water treatment
Bottling line
Filtration (Sand, AC, UF, NF, RO)
Final product
For more information:
Several White Papers can be found here in the download area to provide further information about bottled water measurements with the ColiMinder.
References
The ColiMinder™ has proven its reliability, stability and robustness in various applications world-wide
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