The vigorous consolidation process within the food industry in western countries has increased the risk of microbiological contamination in food and the extent to which harmful effects are caused by it. For this reason industry, civil authorities and, primarily, consumers have become more interested in the microbiological quality of foods. Dangerous chemicals and copious washes have traditionally been used to handle the hygiene at food production premises, thus burdening the environment. The Finnish company Oy BIOCID Ltd has developed an automatic and comprehensive microbial management system that combines different technologies to disinfect food production premises and equipment safely.

Microbes spread rapidly and dangerously, and often imperceptibly. For example, salmonella, listeria and coliform bacteria cause food poisoning in people to a greater or lesser degree all round the world every day. The poisons can sometimes be slight, sometimes lethal. Each case causes not only financial losses but also a weakening in consumer confidence. In particular, companies that make brand products, major trading chains and chains that produce services for restaurants have found problems relating to microbes and quality to be a growing financial problem.

Microbes that cause food poisoning generally find their way into a person because of poor hygiene when foods are being produced or stored. Traditionally the battle against microbes has been fought with chemical disinfectants that are harmful to the environment or copious washes that become a burden on the environment. The end result, however, varies and in the long term the microbes become resistant to chemicals. On the other hand noticing microbes is difficult, and various analysis results are often not obtained until after an epidemic has broken out.

"Nowadays there exists a physically effective solution to this biological problem," says Ari Lehto, a doctor of physics and the R&D director at BIOCID Ltd. A microbial management system developed by BIOCID, a Finnish company, monitors the quality of foods by destroying harmful microbes and controlling their number. The system, which is easy to install, is completely automatic and kills microbes at night and when food production premises are not being used. The system destroys the microbes' DNA structure with a combination of UVC light, oxygen radicals and infra-red light. The food does not need to be irradiated: disinfecting the production premises is enough to guarantee the biological purity and high quality of the food.

Thanks to the system foods retain their quality for a long time. "BIOCID Ltd's automatic quality control system reduces wastage and improves the products' quality. A company that uses BIOCID equipment is more competitive and its reputation is protected," states Peter Christiansen, the company's managing director. The system prevents microbes that are resistant to traditional chemicals from entering products and then people.

The meat industry's Finnish Meat Research Institute is at present testing the effectiveness of the BIOCID system in the destruction of salmonella, listeria and coliform bacteria. The new EU decrees concerning higher hygiene standards that will come into force in January 2004 will increase the need for the BIOCID system. Oy BIOCID Ltd's microbiological quality control system is the only solution in the world that covers industrial hygiene comprehensively and with an interdisciplinary approach.

Oy BIOCID Ltd, which was established in 2001, is a company that combines information and biosafety technology. Its strengths are interdisciplinary expertise and exploiting it in the construction of microbial management systems. Today Oy BIOCID Ltd operates in the food industry, but in the near future operations will be expanded into the pharmaceuticals and health care sectors by providing a system for combatting hospital bacteria. The technology in the BIOCID microbial management system consists of the components from different manufacturers: UVC light, oxygen radicals and infra-red, which have been integrated into one system.

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