Soy sauce processing – a challenge for sensor technology

To ensure the consistent quality of the soy sauces, the production process based on natural fermentation requires constant monitoring and control. This is the only way to guarantee the right balance from the multitude of salts, starch/ sugar and flavorings which is essential for a consistent taste experience. Due to the intense color of the soy sauce, color independent turbidity measurement is an ideal measuring principle for continuous quality monitoring in the process. Based on its four-beam measuring principle, the ITM-4 is able to reliably measure even the smallest turbidity levels from 0 to 5000 NTU and to give an alarm signal immediately if there is any deviation from the specified values.

Thanks to this monitoring with ITM-4, NOCA TECH was able to significantly increase the service life of the filter membranes, which in turn significantly reduced production costs and plant downtimes.

In the fermentation process, the conversion of the salts also produces chloridion, which has an aggressive effect on metal surfaces. Therefore NOCA TECH employs pressure sensors type DAN-HH for monitoring the process pressure. With diaphragms made of 316L stainless steel, these sensors are particularly resistant to chloride ions.

For a permanent monitoring of all process sequences, a flow meter of type HM-E is also used in the plant. This device ensures a precise monitoring of filling systems even with non-conductive media due to its special rotor induction principle.

Finally, extremely compact mini versions of the NCS type level monitor ensure that the minimum or maximum levels in the plant are reliably signaled. This ensures one hundred percent that on the one side the pump never runs dry or on the other side the tank never overflows.

For NOCA TECH, the product quality was one component for the decision for a supplier of the entire sensor technology. The cost reduction due to the sophisticated sensing devices, the ease of installation and commissioning and the general support in the decision process were additional reasons to select Anderson-Negele as a partner for the equipment.