Food liquids - Rinsing of the primary packagings

Although rinsing is little practised in France today, where one-way packaging is widespread, it remains important in other countries, such as Germany, which have a strict ecological policy. Rinsing, as the only hygienic treatment for containers intended to hold liquid foodstuffs, will concern non-refillable non-refillable packaging made of metal, glass, plastic or composite materials. However, some of these containers can be recovered through organized collections and recycled in ways other than re-filling.

When it comes to rinsing non-refillable containers, the term "rinsing" implies not only rinsing with potable water, as defined by the legislator, but also other fluids such as hot water, sterile water, saturated or superheated steam, hot, cold or ionized air, and even antiseptic or detergent solutions.

Originally, when they first came into use, these rinsing machines were designed as small bottle washers, with the containers introduced and then conveyed in cells carried by ramps, circulating to meet the water injectors as they passed. This was a cumbersome in-line organization that did not justify the service required. This was soon replaced by a single-line organization, and push-type rinsers with scrollers for processing rates of up to 10,000 B/H were fully justified, whereas beyond this rate, the linear footprint was too great. Carousel organization soon replaced in-line organization, and the technique used for fillers was extrapolated to rinsers, enabling speeds compatible with those of the fillers themselves to be achieved, thus enabling the rinser-filler pair to be BLOC-synchronized. A rotary joint on the rinser enabled us to multiply the number of fluids used for container treatment.