The application of ozone in beverage processing mainly focuses on the following two aspects:
Water treatment:One of the most important ingredients in beverage production is water. Ozone can be used to treat drinking water and water used in beverage production to eliminate bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms, while removing odors and colors to ensure water quality and taste.
Disinfection:Ozone can be used as a disinfectant on beverage processing equipment, pipes and containers to prevent cross-contamination and ensure product hygiene and safety.
Any industry which uses water as a part of its process or raw material needs to disinfect water to the highest level possible. When it comes to beverage industries water is an integral part of the process. At each and every stage disinfected water is required. The quality of the end product greatly depends upon the quality of process water.
In beverage industry water is mainly used in two places- one as part of product & second for rinsing & cleaning. To achieve good level of disinfection chlorine & its derivatives were being used in beverage industry. In the nineties chlorine was the only effective disinfectant available. Due to unavailability of any other technique or disinfectant chlorine was very popular. Unfortunately chlorine has many side effects in the process, product, people & environment. Since no other option was available in spite of following side effect chlorine was used as the only source of disinfection.
