Did you know that the food industry is the third-largest industrial water consumer in both France and the UK, and that up to 70% of that water is used solely for cleaning processes?
Every day, food manufacturers across Europe use thousands of litres of fresh water to maintain the strictest hygiene standards. Yet, much of this water is used inefficiently: too much pressure, too low pressure, too much flow, too little control, and ultimately, tons of money down the drain – sometimes even compromising hygiene standards.
Our planet may be covered in water, but only 3% of it is fresh, and just a fraction of that is available for industrial cleaning processes. With the world’s population set to exceed 9 billion by 2050, food production must become more efficient and sustainable to meet rising demand.
At Foodclean, we believe preventive measures must be taken now to protect our planet’s resources and sustainability has always been at the heart of everything we do.
Many food and drink manufacturers come to us with the same question:
How can we clean our production areas more thoroughly, quickly, and sustainably?
Our answer? It’s all in the details. While chemicals and detergents play a vital role in achieving high hygiene standards, other critical factors have a major impact on water use.
On food production sites, we often see hidden inefficiencies that quietly increase costs, waste labour, and introduce unnecessary risks. Hot water is frequently used where ambient water would be sufficient, sometimes even making soil harder to remove rather than aiding cleaning. Wash points are often poorly positioned, forcing teams to connect long hoses, which wastes time and raises the risk of cross-contamination. Water pressure is commonly mismatched to the task – too high during interim cleaning, creating food safety concerns, or too low for effective cleaning of equipment like conveyors or mincers. Added to this, cleaning tools are often stored far from where they are needed, making every cleaning cycle longer and less efficient. Foodclean helps you asses all that and much more with our Total Cost of Clean method.
One of the most effective ways to reduce water consumption while maintaining exceptional hygiene standards is switching from high-pressure to a medium-pressure cleaning system.
While high-pressure cleaning may seem powerful, it often leads to wasted water, unnecessary surface damage, and uneven cleaning. Medium-pressure systems, when combined with the right detergents and accessories, deliver excellent cleaning performance. They provide better cleaning coverage with significantly less aerosol generation compared to high-pressure systems – helping to reduce water waste, cross-contamination, and health risks.
Our Total Cost of Clean methodology (TCC®) audits your current pressure systems, benchmarks energy and water flows, and optimises CIP routines to achieve the ideal pressure for maximum efficiency. At Foodclean we have seen first-hand how our method combined with our full range of equipment and high expertise, delivers significant water savings.
Real-world impact: we were able to reduce a factory’s cleaning process time from 62 minutes to 35 minutes simply by introducing medium pressure in place of high-pressure cleaning.
The result? Higher production time, 19% less water wasted, and uncompromised hygiene standards. Another factory was able to save £390 K per year by partnering with us to achieve sustainability across its site to enhance water saving and chemical reduction.
Our method goes far beyond pressure optimisation. It helps reduce water, labour effort, cleaning time, energy use, and overall operational costs – all while supporting uncompromised hygiene.
Our key focus points:
And because we’re always thinking ahead, we can provide our customers with a new cleaning intelligence software that provides real-time insights into cleaning operations – including water, pressure, temperature, and chemical use. This enables customers to monitor, adjust, and track progress towards sustainability and performance goals.
Our Total Cost of Clean methodology helps food manufacturers take full control of their cleaning processes: delivering significant savings in water, labour, energy, chemicals, and cleaning time – all backed by real data and measurable results.
Let’s work together to turn water waste into water efficiency – for your business, your customers, and the planet.
