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Palletblocks - Pine |
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Pine has germicidal effects
Experts agree that the good name of wood in foodstuff processing needs to be rehabilitated.
That bacteria only grow slowly on wooden boarding used to be common knowledge. This fact was forgotten in the enthusiasm for new materials but has now been rediscovered by science. A research project of the German Federal Institute of Agriculture and Forestry in Brunswick has confirmed it anew.
Anette Schoenfelder has proven that pinewood has bactericidal properties. Bacteria placed on wood drop in number on the surface. The same effect has been proven to occur within the wood as well. Pinewood doesn't lose this hygienic characteristic even if bacteria are applied several times. By contrast, infectious germs multiply on plastic surfaces and only begin to fall in number after 12 to 24 hours.
The study consisted of monitoring the wood, plastic and special hygienic wooden pallets used in the meat and dairy industries as well as in bakeries and on vegetable farms for germs on a regular basis. The hygienic wood pallets are made of pinewood especially dried for the purpose. It was proven that wood pallets have 15% less
germs than their plastic equivalents. In the case of specially made hygienic wood pallets, the average germ quantities were even lower. The numbers worked out at half that found on standard plastic pallets.
In view of these results, the ban on the use of wood in packaging and foodstuffs processing must be lifted and wood as an ecological and sustainable raw material no longer put at such a disadvantage. |
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