Pipe Cleaning

[MapleGroup]

Everyone asks why we clean our pipes. What do you tell them? What do you clean them with? or do you just let the sap clean the lines itself.

Many answers people are dying to hear. Me personally I clean them with tubing cleaner. Reason being, We all make a food product and I sell to the public. If an inspector checks your operation you have that going for you.

Anyone ever just pull taps out and let lines sit without cleaning? what is the results of this? Moldy syrup?

[BreezyHill]

Since the late 1970's we have cleaned with Clorox solution until 2014 end of season when we switched to peroxide solution. This change was in reaction to the sudden squirrel population increase. End of season we flush plug the lines. In the fall we fill the drops and let hang plugged with solution. When taping we clip off the old spout and install a new seasonal spout.

We clean for many reason:
Clean tubing looks much better than black coated lines or blue lines with black spots in them.
After the first sap filter change of the season, we seldom need to change it for the reset of the season as long as all the wood chips are out of the system.
Floaters in my releaser look nasty to customers and on videos.12252 Ice crystals look cool.
I use many ladders and the crud that grows in the lines, will and have, plugged riser lines.
Clean lines have been shown in a study from Steve Childs of Cornell University to produce equal to new lines.

Yes if there was ever an issue I have documented when our lines are washed and a recall only stops at a point of a system clean out/sanitation in food grade products.

Since we boil sap for long periods of time, at high enough temps, we kill pathogens... it is very very very unlikely that there will be a problem from a pathogen; but it is far easier to explain to customers and public that " We wash all of our Equipment" than to say we wash the RO, Tanks and evaporator but the lines in the woods we let sit and grow mold, yeasts, and all naturally occurring things.

Besides it is easier to be ahead of any future guidelines than to have to update procedures to catch up to be complaint.

[DrTimPerkins]

Clean lines have been shown in a study from Steve Childs of Cornell University to produce equal to new lines.

Unfortunately the results are buried in the details of HOW you clean and WHAT you clean with. Most sanitizers have a required minimum contact time. Sucking a small amount of the sanitizer in via the spout/dropline with vacuum is NOT particularly effective. Flooding the system with a sanitizer and leaving it for a period of time can be, or removing drops and bringing them in to soak in sanitizer can be effective in terms of increasing sap yields. The bottom line is that cleaning CAN be effective, but only if done properly.

Of course it also depends upon how you what you're measuring. If you're only looking for increased yields you get one type of answer. If you're looking at net profit you can easily get another answer. Cleaning in the more effective (to produce high yields) ways requires more time/effort and more in materials, so the net profit calculation is affected. Use of chemical sanitizers also typically requires a rinse, or requires the sap be allowed to run on the ground, which is more time/effort/cost.

I really don't want to go into it at length here since we are working on the publication, however short-contact time cleaning is far less effective in producing net profits for maple producers than simple replacement strategies (new spout, use of CV spouts/adapters, or new drops periodically). It might make you feel good, but doesn't do anything for your bottom line.

Finally, maple producers in the US should realize that the use of IPA (isopropyl alcohol), which is common practice in Quebec, is ILLEGAL in the US. IPA is NOT a registered pesticide in the US for use in maple tubing systems (and that is the way it is used, so it is governed by EPA regulations). The use of IPA could result in your entire crop being considered contaminated, seized, and destroyed. I don't care if it says "food grade" on the label or not....until some company does the research and gets it registered by the EPA to sell as a spout/tubing sanitizer in the US, it is not allowed.