Services: Food and Beverages

Food and Beverages

Food and beverage manufacturers depend on water in ways that go far beyond simple utility. Water is an ingredient in your recipes, a critical processing medium for cooking, pasteurisation, and cooling, and an essential tool for cleaning and sanitising your facility and equipment. Every litre that enters your process must meet strict quality standards — and every litre that leaves must comply with environmental discharge regulations.

Thwalokuhle designs, builds, and maintains complete water treatment systems for food and beverage facilities — from raw feed water pre-treatment and process water purification through to effluent collection and disposal. Our systems are engineered to meet the demands of continuous production environments, where uptime, consistency, and food safety are non-negotiable.

We understand that in the food and beverage industry, a water system failure is a production stoppage. Our approach combines robust equipment selection, preventive maintenance programmes, and local service support to ensure your water supply never becomes a bottleneck.

02 STANDARDS

REGULATORY STANDARDS

Standard 01

FSSC 22000 — Food Safety System Certification

The Food Safety System Certification 22000 (FSSC 22000) is a globally recognised food safety management system standard, based on ISO 22000 and sector-specific prerequisite programmes. Water used in food and beverage production must be managed and monitored within an FSSC 22000-compliant framework. Our systems support your certification by providing documented water quality data, control parameters, and maintenance records.

Standard 02

User Specific Requirements (USR)

Many global food and beverage manufacturers — particularly multinational brand owners — impose User Specific Requirements (USR) that go beyond the base FSSC 22000 standard. These typically cover supplier qualification, water quality specifications, system validation, and documentation. Thwalokuhle designs and delivers systems that are fully aligned with your customer's USR obligations, ensuring audit readiness at every level of your supply chain.

Standard 03

World Class Manufacturing (WCM)

World Class Manufacturing (WCM) is an integrated system of methods and tools used by leading food and beverage manufacturers to eliminate losses and improve performance across all production pillars — including environment, quality, and maintenance. Water systems designed under WCM principles are standardised, monitored, and subject to continuous improvement, with defined KPIs and visual management tools aligned to your WCM programme.

Standard 04

ISO 45001 — Occupational Health & Safety

ISO 45001 is the international standard for occupational health and safety management systems. All water treatment systems we design and install incorporate safety-by-design principles — including lockout/tagout provisions, chemical handling safeguards for chlorine dioxide dosing systems, and compliant electrical and mechanical safety design — to support your ISO 45001 obligations and protect your workforce.

Standard 05

National Water Act — Sections 21(f) & (h)

The legal requirements for the discharge of waste water into a water resource in South Africa are governed by the National Water Act (Act 36 of 1998). Sections 21(f) and 21(h) regulate the discharge of waste or water containing waste through a pipe, canal, sewer, or other conduit, and the disposal of water containing waste from industrial or power generation processes. Thwalokuhle designs effluent treatment systems that ensure your discharge meets the prescribed General Authorisation or Water Use Licence conditions.

Standard 06

SANS 241 — Drinking Water Quality

Where process water is required to meet potable water standards — for example, where water comes into direct contact with food or beverage products — our pre-treatment and purification systems are designed to produce water that meets or exceeds the SANS 241 South African National Standard for drinking water quality, providing a verified baseline for your food safety management system.

3. Services

High-purity RO water for direct use in product formulation, ingredient water, equipment rinsing, and all food-contact process applications. Our RO systems for food and beverage are designed for continuous duty, high recovery, and consistent output quality — meeting FSSC 22000 and USR water quality specifications. Systems are sized to your peak production demand with appropriate redundancy.

Protecting your RO membranes and downstream equipment starts with the right pre-treatment train. Thwalokuhle designs and supplies complete pre-treatment systems — including multimedia sand filtration, activated carbon adsorption, AFM (Activated Filter Media), water softening, and pH correction — tailored to your source water chemistry (municipal, borehole, or surface water) and target production water quality.

Chlorine dioxide (ClO₂) is one of the most effective biocides for food and beverage water treatment — controlling biofilm, Legionella, and a broad spectrum of pathogens at low concentrations with minimal disinfection by-products. We supply, install, and maintain on-site chlorine dioxide generation and dosing systems for the treatment of incoming source water, as well as for CIP support and distribution system disinfection.

Food and beverage production generates significant volumes of contaminated process water — from CIP rinse waters and product spills to cooling water blowdown and general factory effluent. Thwalokuhle designs effluent collection, treatment, and recovery systems that bring your facility into full compliance with the discharge requirements of Sections 21(f) and 21(h) of the National Water Act, and — where applicable — enable water recovery and reuse to reduce your municipal consumption.

04 OUR TECH

Technology

01 / 08
Sand Filtration

Sand & AFM Filtration

Multimedia sand filtration and Activated Filter Media (AFM) are the first line of defence in any food and beverage pre-treatment train. These pressure filter vessels remove suspended solids, turbidity, iron, manganese, and larger organic particles from the feed water — protecting downstream activated carbon vessels, softeners, and RO membranes from premature fouling.

AFM — made from activated, recycled glass — outperforms standard sand media in mechanical filtration efficiency and is significantly more resistant to biofouling, making it the preferred choice for food-grade applications where biofilm control is a priority.

02 / 08
Activated Carbon

Activated Carbon Adsorption

Activated carbon filtration is essential in food and beverage water pre-treatment for the removal of free chlorine and chloramines, which would otherwise destroy RO membranes and affect product taste. Beyond dechlorination, activated carbon also removes dissolved organics, pesticides, trace pharmaceuticals, taste and odour compounds, and other micro-pollutants that would be unacceptable in food-contact applications.

We supply both Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) vessels for continuous duty systems and Powdered Activated Carbon (PAC) dosing for batch applications. Carbon media is monitored and replaced at validated intervals to ensure consistent adsorption performance.

03 / 08
Softener Systems

Softener Systems

Hard water — containing elevated calcium and magnesium ions — causes scale formation on heat exchangers, pasteurisers, boilers, and RO membranes. In food and beverage production, scale build-up is both a quality risk and an operational cost driver. Ion exchange water softeners remove hardness ions through a sodium-based cation exchange resin bed, producing consistently soft water that protects your production assets and extends equipment life.

Thwalokuhle sizes and commissions duplex softener systems for uninterrupted production — while one vessel is in service, the second is regenerating — ensuring continuous soft water supply at all times.

04 / 08
pH Correction Systems

pH Correction Systems

Water pH has a direct effect on the taste of beverages, the effectiveness of cleaning and disinfection chemicals, and the performance and longevity of RO membranes. Acidic or alkaline source water must be corrected to a target range before entering the production process. Our automated pH correction systems use closed-loop dosing control — with inline pH measurement and proportional reagent dosing — to maintain precise pH within your required specification.

Systems are designed for both acid correction (using CO₂, sulphuric, or citric acid) and alkaline correction (using caustic soda or lime), with material selection and reagent choice matched to the food-grade requirements of your application.

05 / 08
Ultrafiltration (UF)

Ultrafiltration (UF)

Ultrafiltration membranes — with pore sizes of 0.01 to 0.1 microns — provide a reliable physical barrier against bacteria, viruses, colloids, and high-molecular-weight organics. In food and beverage applications, UF is used both as a standalone clarification and disinfection step and as a pre-treatment stage ahead of RO, producing a high-quality, consistent feed that maximises RO membrane life and minimises chemical cleaning requirements.

Hollow fibre UF modules operate in either inside-out or outside-in flow configuration, with periodic automated backwash and chemical enhanced backwash (CEB) cycles to maintain permeability over the membrane life.

06 / 08
Nanofiltration (NF)

Nanofiltration (NF)

Nanofiltration sits between ultrafiltration and reverse osmosis in the membrane separation spectrum — with pore sizes in the 1–10 nanometre range. NF membranes are particularly useful in food and beverage applications where selective ion removal is required: they reject divalent ions (hardness, sulphates, heavy metals, and larger organic molecules) while allowing monovalent ions and minerals to pass through in the permeate.

This selectivity makes nanofiltration ideal for applications such as water softening without full demineralisation, colour and pesticide removal from surface water supplies, and the production of process water with a controlled mineral balance for specific beverage formulations.

07 / 08
Microfiltration (MF)

Microfiltration (MF)

Microfiltration — with nominal pore sizes of 0.1 to 10 microns — is used to remove suspended particles, sediment, rust, bacteria, protozoa, algae, and colloids from water. In food and beverage systems, MF is typically applied as a final polishing step before product-contact use, or as a protective guard filter ahead of UV disinfection units, RO membranes, and nanofiltration systems.

Cartridge microfiltration is a simple, reliable, and cost-effective barrier technology — with replaceable filter elements available in a wide range of pore ratings and materials, including food-grade polypropylene and absolute-rated membranes for critical applications.

08 / 08
Reverse Osmosis (RO)

Reverse Osmosis Production Water

Reverse Osmosis (RO) is the core production water technology in food and beverage water systems — delivering consistent, high-purity water for ingredient use, equipment rinsing, and all food-contact process applications. RO membranes reject up to 98% of dissolved salts, organics, bacteria, and viruses, producing water that meets the strict quality requirements of FSSC 22000, USR specifications, and WCM-aligned quality KPIs.

Thwalokuhle sizes and designs RO systems for food and beverage production environments where continuous uptime is critical — incorporating redundant feed pumps, automatic flushing on shutdown, and chemical dosing for scale and bio inhibition.

5. Maintenance

Scheduled Clean-In-Place (CIP) procedures for all water treatment plant equipment — including RO systems, ultrafiltration units, and nanofiltration systems. CIP removes biofilm, scale, and organic fouling from membranes and vessel internals, restoring system performance and protecting water quality. All CIP procedures are conducted to validated protocols with pre- and post-CIP water quality verification.

Ongoing supply of precursor chemicals for on-site chlorine dioxide generation — including sodium chlorite and hydrochloric acid or sodium persulfate, delivered to site and managed within your chemical management system. Chemical supply is provided on a scheduled basis aligned to your production volume and dosing requirements, with full safety data sheets, delivery documentation, and stock management support.

Service and replacement of filter media in pre-treatment pressure vessels — covering activated carbon (GAC), Activated Filter Media (AFM), and softener resin. Media is monitored for depletion and performance degradation, and replaced at validated intervals before quality deterioration can impact downstream production water quality. All media removed and new media installed with full change record documentation.

Scheduled supply and replacement of all consumable filter cartridges across the pre-treatment and polishing systems — including microfiltration guard cartridges, polypropylene depth filters, and absolute-rated cartridges at critical points. Replacement is carried out at validated intervals based on differential pressure, production volume, or elapsed time — whichever trigger occurs first — with full cartridge traceability records.

Supply and installation of replacement RO, UF, and NF membranes at validated end-of-life intervals or on performance-based triggers (flux decline, salt passage increase, or differential pressure rise). All membranes are sourced from approved manufacturers with full certification documentation. Post-replacement performance testing confirms the system has returned to specification before being returned to production service.

A formal Service Level Agreement (SLA) covering monthly scheduled site visits by a qualified Thwalokuhle service engineer. Each visit includes a full operational inspection of all system components, review of water quality data trends, calibration checks, chemical stock assessment, and documentation of any maintenance actions or recommendations. A written inspection report is issued after each visit — formatted to support your FSSC 22000 documentation requirements and internal quality audits.

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