FOOD PRODUCTION & PROCESSING
Airborne Mold Is Costing You Shelf Life
Bread cooling. Cheese aging. Meat curing. The stages where product sits warm, moist, and exposed are the stages where airborne mold does the most damage — to quality, to shelf life, and to yield. UV-C treats the air continuously, without chemicals and without stopping the line.
WHERE PRODUCT IS MOST VULNERABLE
The Risk Peaks After the Kill Step
Thermal processing gets product close to sterile. What happens next is where it’s lost. Bread leaves the oven nearly sterile and then spends up to ninety minutes in a cooling spiral circulating ambient air across warm, high-moisture surfaces. Cheese and cured meats spend weeks or months in aging and drying rooms, in exactly the temperature and humidity conditions mold prefers. Airborne spores settle on product that has no remaining barrier.
The cost lands on shelf life and yield. Product that molds early comes back. Product that molds in the aging room is trimmed or discarded. Neither shows up as a safety incident — both show up in margin. UV-C addresses it at the source: continuous treatment of recirculating air at the point where product is most exposed, without chemicals, without a production stop, and without changing the recipe.
Extend Shelf Life
Reduce Trim and Loss
No Chemicals, No Downtime
Support Audit Readiness
WHERE UV-C FITS IN YOUR OPERATION
Three Application Zones. One Engineered Solution.
UV-C is deployed at the critical control points where contamination actually occurs — each addressing a distinct risk, each sized to the specific airflow, geometry, and organism involved.
ZONE 1
Air Disinfection
Cooling spirals, AHUs, aging and drying rooms, cold storage, and processing areas. Continuous reduction of airborne mold spores and pathogens during the stages when product is most vulnerable — bread cooling, cheese aging, meat curing and drying.
ZONE 2
Surface Disinfection
Conveyor belts, slicers, packaging machinery, thermoforming lines, and automatic scales. IP69K rated systems withstand high-pressure washdown and CIP cycles without removal from the line.
ZONE 3
Inline Product Treatment
Upstream of slicers, on packaging lines, and at flow pack and bottling stations. UV-C provides a final microbial reduction step on product surfaces and packaging materials before sealing.
FROM THE PRODUCTION FLOOR
Mold Eliminated. Shelf Life Extended. No Recipe Changes.
The world’s largest baking company was experiencing mold growth between packaged bread slices 4–6 days after production. Microbiological testing cleared the baking process — the source was airborne spores circulating inside the spiral cooling enclosure and transferring to product surfaces during slicing.
Light Progress installed UV-C air disinfection units inside the cooling spiral to continuously treat recirculating air, with additional surface units upstream of the slicer. After installation, airborne mold spore counts dropped significantly, no mold appeared between packaged slices, and shelf life improved — without changing the recipe, adding preservatives, or slowing the line.
The same approach applies wherever product sits exposed in conditioned air — aging rooms, drying chambers, and cold storage.
“Once we focused on controlling airborne mold spores during the cooling phase, the situation improved quickly. During routine inspections, the auditors appreciated that we were taking a proactive approach to improving both safety and quality.”
— Senior Quality Manager, Global Baking Company
BEFORE YOU COMMIT
Test It Against Your Actual Problem First
You don’t have to take a spec sheet’s word for it. Light Progress provides demo units for food and beverage production environments. Install per our guidelines, run it against the contamination problem you actually have, and measure the result.
Most capital decisions in this category stall because nobody can prove it will work in their specific facility. This removes that question before you spend anything.
Demo units are available for qualifying applications. Tell us what you’re producing and where the problem shows up, and we’ll tell you whether a trial makes sense.
FEATURED PRODUCTS
UV-C Systems Built for Industrial Environments
Engineered for washdown environments, CIP compatibility, and continuous production operation.
SURFACE & LINE TREATMENT
UV-STYLO-K Series
Pencil-style UV-C lamp for conveyor belts, packaging lines, thermoforming machines, cooling tunnels, and automatic scales. AISI 304 stainless steel. IP69K rated — survives high-pressure, high-temperature washdown and CIP cycles. UVLON lamp protection is FDA food contact compliant. Multiple wattage options. Up to log5 microbial load reduction in 5 seconds at 10cm.
✓ IP69K ✓ CIP Compatible ✓ FDA Food Contact Compliant
SURFACE & LINE TREATMENT
UV-TEAM Series
Multi-lamp UV-C surface treatment system for transport and packaging lines. Scalable 2–8 lamp configurations to hit any target disinfection level. AISI 304 stainless steel. Mirror-bright aluminum reflectors. Safety shutter protects personnel during maintenance. Integrates with BMS, SCADA, and PLC systems via alarm outputs and optional control board. IP55. Up to log5 microbial reduction.
✓ IP55 ✓ Safety Shutter ✓ System Integration Ready
STANDARDS & COMPLIANCE
Engineered for Compliance-Driven Operations
FDA food contact compliance · IP69K / CIP washdown rated · NALMCO-certified commissioning · Software-validated UV dose calculations · DWG and STEP files available for specification and design-in
Documentation is provided for HACCP plans and third-party audits.
START HERE
Tell Us Where Your Product Is Exposed
Describe your process — where product sits, for how long, and what you’re seeing. Our engineers size the application and tell you what’s realistic. If you’d rather see it work first, we’ll send a demo unit.
Equipment distributor or service contractor interested in carrying Light Progress? Learn more →