If you’re in the food and drink manufacturing industry you’ll know just how many pumps your plant relies on for efficient production; for dosing specific quantities of ingredients in the production line, transferring the finished product into containers and removing any waste product leftover.

With fluids varying from shear sensitive creams and syrups, to viscous, solid laden sauces to high temperature vegetable oils, the process of specifying a food transfer pump requires technical application experience to make sure that you have the right pump to deliver your process correctly and without downtime. With 15 years’ experience supplying pumping solutions to food processing and packaging plants, dairies and breweries, this is exactly what we are able to offer.

Hygienic pump standards

With public health and safety paramount, equipment supplied for food and drink processing needs to ensure that the handled product is suitable for human consumption and does not fall victim to contamination. This generally means that food transfer pumps need to be made from non-contaminating materials and can be easily cleaned.

FDA regulations from the US Food and Drug Administration state that food contact surfaces need to be smooth, free of cracks and crevices, non-absorbent, cleanable, non-toxic and corrosion resistant to ensure that no food or bacteria can harbour and contaminate the product. 300 grade stainless steel is an example of an FDA approved material for food grade pumps.

Where the client wants more official compliance than the pump being constructed from food grade materials, we offer food safe pumps approved to 3A and EHEDG standards and can supply the relevant documentation to prove their compliance. These standards lay out a criteria for the design and fabrication of equipment that comes into contact with food, which it then third party evaluated. Whilst there are currently no legal requirements to use a hygienic pump officially certified by a third party as safe for use with food, a manufacturer’s duty to uphold public sanitary conditions means that lots opt for this for guaranteed safety.

Our food safe pump range

The food processing industry has a vast range of requirements when it comes to the pumps they use. We can supply food safe pumps for:

• Brewing and oenology
• Cream, milks, yoghurt and whey
• Sauces and syrups
• Fruit juices and pulp
• Edible oils and fats
• Ingredient/additive dosing
• Waste residue slurries

As you can see from the list above, there can be huge variances in the thickness and consistencies of liquids – take honey for example, that is an entirely different in every way to pumping chopped tomatoes. For that reason, the range of food grade pumps we offer involves various pumping technologies and design features.

• Food Grade Barrel Pumps – We offer a range of food grade drum pumps for applications such as mixing and barrel emptying, when it is required to transfer food stuff from its container. Models in our range are capable of emptying 99.98& of a barrel to eliminate product waste.

• Dosing pumps – These are required for accurately delivering specific quantities of an ingredient into a mixture, for example adding rapeseed oil into crisps or adding cake mixture into cases. Dosing pumps are defined by a smooth, non pulsating flow.

• Clean in Place Pumps - Otherwise referred to as CIP pumps, are where the pump can be easily taken apart, cleaned and sterilised without having to remove it entirely from the installation.

• Solid handling pumps – Often in food processing, the fluid will contain solids. The wrong pump could be damaged by the presence of solid, for example stringy pulp in fruit juice may clog the internals. In other situations, the pump may even damage the solid, which could be the part you’re trying to preserve e.g. when pumping chopped tomatoes, it could turn them into slurry.

• Low shear pumps – Shear sensitive liquids are those whose viscosity and composition can be changed when force is applied upon them. For example, cream gets thicker as it is whipped and honey gets thinner. When this is the case, low shear pumping technologies such as peristaltic pumps, flexible impeller pumps and progressive cavity pumps should be considered. Most dairy products are shear sensitive.
  

• Tri-clamp Couplings - In order to meet the standards for non-permanent sanitary food grade piping, we can supply pumps complete with Tri-clamp Stainless Steel ISO 2852 pump couplings.

• ATEX pumps – Equipment used in the production of alcohol such as in breweries and distilleries need to be safe for use in potentially hazardous environments due to the flammable nature of alcohol.

Food Transfer Pump Case Studies

We've been supplying the food and drink industry with pumping solutions for their manufacturing plants for over 15 years. From a portable beer transfer pump for a brewery, to a food grade barrel pump for hot, bolognese sauce to a vertical immersion pump for pumping waste chicken guts at a halal factory, here's just a few of our past projects where we've helped customers like you to find a pump that delivers your process... 

View our case studies