[Canada]

On the Agenda

Reusing the water used to cool canned foods.

More Water-Efficient Canned Foods

Anyone who has done their own canning knows that foods must be heated to over 100°C/212°F so that they can be sterilized and kept for long periods of time. And if something is heated, it will also have to be cooled. Cooling canned foods is the part of the process that consumes the most water at the plant. So how can we use less in order to preserve this precious resource? The Saint-Césaire site in Canada found the solution: reusing the water used for cooling!

Saving 30 Million Liters of Water

With the old method, the cooling water went down the drain, just like it would in your kitchen sink. But in this case, the water is not really wastewater, as it has only been used for cooling purposes. What if we closed the loop, so that the same water could be used multiple times for the same canned food?

Such recirculation loops helped us save 12% of the water we use, adding up to 30 million liters! And that’s not all. We can still improve the control loops to further reduce the amount of water used at the plant.

A Larger Goal

This is not the plant’s first project aimed at reducing water consumption. Water is used for many processes, and the goal is to reduce waste wherever possible. Last year, the plant launched a project to reduce the amount of potable water used.