Safely Storing Bulk Food Dyes in Poly Processing Tanks

The food and beverage industry has a long history of relying on stainless steel storage tanks due to the belief that the resins in a polyethylene storage tank allow leaching and bacterial growth with food dyes and other food products.

Thanks to advanced resin technologies, Poly Processing Company offers storage tanks with cost saving advantages for food and beverage operations that are compliant with FDA/CFR Title 21, parts 176-177 specifications. With these resins, Poly Processing Company is the leading bulk food dye crosslinked polyethylene tank manufacturing company.

FDA-Compliant Bulk Food Dye Storage Options

Poly Processing Company has several engineered solutions for optimal food dye storage. The two most popular solutions are:

• A Vertical Tank with IMFO® when a single-wall system will work
• A SAFE-Tank® when double wall containment is required.

Both poly systems meet the FDA regulations and both are available from all three Poly Processing manufacturing sites. Here is a short overview of the two most popular Poly Processing tanks used in the food dye industry.

Using the IMFO System for Bulk Food Dye Storage

Poly Processing’s Integrally Molded Flanged Outlet®, or IMFO system, gives you a complete full discharge of the food dye. The IMFO is molded while the tank is processing at the lowest point of the tank sidewall, making it a stress-free part of the tank. The flange is created during the molding cycle from the same material as the tank, allowing excellent clean-in-place (CIP) access without the need for confined space entry. These poly tanks can be cleaned using a high pressure sprayer or spray nozzle from the top of the tank, alleviating the need for personnel to enter the tank. Typically our customers clean them on a regular basis, based on normal usage, but they can be cleaned as often as necessary.

Advantages of IMFO®

• Full tank discharge, because the flange is at the bottom of the sidewall, below the tank knuckle radius. There’s no need to enter the tank for cleaning.
• Enhanced long-term performance and fuller useful life of the tank since the flange doesn’t compromise the tank’s hoop integrity or structural design.
• Complete flange face protection is available in aggressive oxidation environments. The antioxidant OR-1000™ system can protect the discharge components from deterioration.
• Highest amount of static head pressure. The IMFO’s design brings you the highest net positive suction head (NPSH) of any vertical non-coned tank on the market.
• Any required maintenance is simple and hassle-free. Unlike metallic inserts, the flange extends away from the tank wall and the entire flange system is external with easy hardware access from outside the tank.
• There are no chemical compatibility issues like the ones you may encounter with metallic inserts. If the chemical is safe in a crosslinked polyethylene tank, it’s safe discharging out of the IMFO system.

Double Wall Containment Tanks for Bulk Food Dyes

Our “tank within a tank” or SAFE-Tank storage tank provides a leveraged investment that offers peace of mind and environmental care. This tank option alleviates the need to build large, high-maintenance concrete containment areas and its all-in-one design features a protected containment area that will safely isolate food dyes from contamination, protect your employees, and protect you from environmental remediation — all within the footprint of a standard vertical tank.

The advantages of the SAFE Tank double-wall tank system are:

• It provides a minimum of 110 percent secondary containment.
• It will equalize the liquid and allow the chemical to be continually used until it is convenient to repair the tank.
• It’s ideal for chemicals like sulfuric acid and caustic soda that can have dangerous exothermic reactions to water.
• The SAFE-Tank can eliminate the expense and maintenance of secondary concrete containment systems.
• It minimizes the system’s footprint by providing secondary containment in a more compact way.
• It keeps the chemical from getting contaminated in case of a spill.
• It allows complete double-wall piping from the tank to a pump skid or pump box using the PPC enhanced Bellows Transition Fitting.

The SAFE-Tank can be double-wall piped from the tank to wherever you want the pipe to terminate using a true double wall transition fitting. This important fitting drains the primary tank through the containment tank while acting as a secondary containment around the fitting. A six-inch flange can be mounted to the outside of the transition fitting and double-wall piping can be run while keeping everything fully contained.

Poly Processing can engineer and design the right bulk food dye system for you. Our goal is to give you peace of mind knowing that when the tank arrives it is fit for duty for the product and application intended.

Contact a chemical storage tank expert today to see how we can help you store your bulk food dyes.