While food processing represents a small segment of the cleanroom industry, it is a steadily growing one. With overall food plant spending increasing at a rate of 6%, cleanroom spending is growing faster than capital expenditures, with cleanroom spending projected to increase at 8% annually for the next few years.
Asia will experience above-average growth. East Asia is already the largest market for food processing cleanrooms, partly due to the role of cleanrooms. China is increasingly becoming a larger exporter of processed foods. Furthermore, the market is rapidly expanding in the US alongside changing dietary habits. However, the greatest growth is in less developed Asian countries.
By 2015, India's food processing industry is projected to triple in size, with other Asian countries also expanding food processing. Both Asia and Europe will spend more on food processing cleanrooms this year compared to NAFTA. Growth in Europe is moderate, but many food processing plants already have cleanrooms installed.

Several trends are driving the use of cleanrooms in various food processing applications. Increased consumer awareness of diet is leading to greater emphasis on the quality of ordinary foods and increased consumption of fresh foods. Simultaneously, another significant change is the move away from additives and preservatives.
Foods that have undergone some processing that alters their normal microbial complement are particularly susceptible to environmental microbial spoilage. Examples include yogurt, cheese, and other dairy products; juices, flavored milks, and prepared meals. Mushroom growing is sometimes done in cleanrooms to prevent excessive growth of opportunistic pathogenic spores.
Juice
Aseptic products have captured the single-serving (250ml) juice and beverage market. This market is expanding into other product lines, including milk drinks, alcoholic beverages, water, and tomato products, and larger 1-liter packages.

Dairy Products
Aseptic processing is frequently used in the processing of yogurt, aseptic milk, or cheese in Switzerland, and in sausage packaging in Sweden.
Some large facilities require 100,000-class (ISO 8 and 9) and above. In the US, Jerome Cheese Company built a $36 million, 140,000 sq ft cheese and whey products plant in Jerome, Idaho. The plant has four main heating and ventilation systems capable of delivering up to 130,000 cubic feet per minute of 95% efficient filtered air, with 15 to 20 air changes per hour. The plant operates under positive pressure, with air flowing from the processing area outwards.
Public and Commercial Kitchens
Cleanroom technology is advantageous where large quantities of food need to be prepared. In Amiens, France, Sulzer designed a cleanroom for a central kitchen that prepares 12,000 meals daily for schoolchildren, the elderly, and city employees. Sulzer equipped an ISO
Class 5 (100-class) cleanroom, along with the necessary heating and refrigeration facilities.
Breweries
Breweries have found that to protect their draft beer, environmental contamination must be controlled during filling operations. The use of cleanrooms for closed filling operations, with HEPA filters installed in the ceiling and perforated floors, has become a growing trend.
Contaminacion Control, a company in Colombia, South America, specializes in building clean environments for food, pharmaceutical, and industrial areas. The company incorporated ISO Class 5 (100-class) and ISO Class 6 (1,000-class) cleanrooms into its design for aseptic filling processes for beer, juices, and soft drinks.
Traditional tunnel pasteurization systems subject products to various high-temperature treatments, resulting in changes in the physical characteristics of the product. In contrast, aseptic filling with controlled pasteurization uses lower heat treatments, which can improve product quality in several ways.
In beer, sensory characteristics such as aroma profile and freshness can be improved. The stability of many products can also be enhanced, extending shelf life. For juices, the avoidance of prolonged high-temperature treatment, as in pipe pasteurization, prevents nutrient loss. As a result, sensory properties such as aroma, taste, and color are improved.
Meat Processing
A US Department of Agriculture study showed that nearly 5% of ready-to-eat meat products in the US are contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, a potentially fatal foodborne pathogen that can cause septicemia, meningitis, or meningoencephalitis—a disease affecting the brain and spinal cord tissues. For pregnant women, Listeria can cause fetal loss and stillbirth.
The expansion of the ready-to-eat meat market is a factor increasing the demand for cleanroom technology. Sweden is a pioneer in this area.
Bakeries
Bakeries are now increasingly adopting cleanroom technology. There are many examples of this in Japan. Commissioned by the Nada Ward Cooperative Association in Kobe City, Chiyoda Construction designed a multipurpose food plant. This plant, with a building area of 3000 m2, is an eight-story building on Rokko Island in Kobe City, and it uses clean technology. This plant produces several types of bread, confectionery, soy tofu, noodles, and several traditional Japanese foods.
The confectionery industry has adopted biocleanroom technology. New, increasingly complex, and uniquely packaged confectionery products have increased the need for controlled environments (temperature, humidity, bacterial levels, etc.), as well as automation of the production process, to ensure good quality and durability.
The cost of cleanrooms in the food industry varies with cleanliness requirements. There are virtually no ISO Class 3 and 4 (Class 1 and 10) installations. An ISO Class 5 (Class 100) cleanroom costs twice as much as an ISO Class 6 (Class 1,000) cleanroom. Costs decrease significantly as cleanliness requirements decrease. Only a small percentage of food cleanrooms utilize ISO Class 5 (Class 100) space. True ISO Class 5 standards are most often used in small areas such as filling lines. Therefore, zoning by area has a significant impact on higher classes.
Annual expenditure on consumables and disposables per employee ranges from US\$790 to US\$7,500, depending on the cleanliness level.
Even in small ISO Class 5 (Class 100) spaces, the high expenditure on consumables per employee and per square foot indicates that over 20% of the budget is spent on these cleaner facilities.
Clearly, the food industry is a significant part of the cleanroom market and will see steady growth over the next decade, with the greatest growth in Asia. New processing technologies, consumer demand, and regulatory requirements will be factors ensuring growth.