Chemicals Needed to Clean a Wholesale Bakery

Working in a bakery is more than deeply inhaling fresh bread odors all day. Creating wholesale products for consumers often requires sticky bread dough, sugary icings, and combinations of flavorings – all of which can feed armies of hidden microorganisms. As a chemical supplier, Bell Chem has a thorough understanding of a bakery’s chemical needs, and works to ensure these products can be delivered to you in record time.

One-step cleaners and sanitizers

Industry demands a vigorous approach to cleaning, degreasing, and sanitizing. One-step cleaners may not be a solution for baked-on dough or greasy surface, but their day-to-day use is vital.

Alkaline detergent cleaners

Baking is a sticky situation, literally. Bread hooks covered in dough will harden if not cleaned immediately, and surfaces suffer the same fate. Machinery can gum up quickly unless the proper cleaner is used. Alkaline detergent cleaners are available in foams to cling to uneven surfaces, or sprays for flat, easy-to-reach countertops. The most common everyday cleanser is chlorinated alkaline detergent. Baked-in or carbonized carbohydrates may require a stronger alkaline cleaner.

Solvent-Containing Detergents 

Solvents are excellent for quickly eliminating liquid and solid lipid-based spills. Lipids include grease and fat, which are not easily cleaned with water since water and oil do not mix. Acetone and toluene are great solvent-containing detergents.

Enzyme-Based Detergents 

Some cleaning surfaces can deteriorate when strong oxidizers or heavy-duty alkaline cleaners are used frequently. Those instances might call for enzyme-based detergents, which easily remove biofilms that cause microbiological contamination. Enzyme-based detergents are not only easy on machinery, they are also safer for the individuals coming into contact with them.

Hypochlorous Acid Solutions

Hypochlorous acid effectively deters pathogens over time – microbes are simply unable to develop a defensive strategy to overcome this heavy-duty bleach. 

Degreasers

Any industry where grease is present can experience buildup and possible damage to equipment. Choose a concentrated degreaser to remove buildup and a diluted solution to maintain your equipment. Remember, grease splatters out of its intended container onto counters, walls, floors, and any other nearby area, which means degreasers are utilized far more often than you may anticipate.

Personal Sanitation

Even the most carefully maintained bakeries may suffer from contamination if the workers do not properly clean and sanitize their clothes and themselves. Implement a hand sanitizing system and ensure it is followed. Install hand sanitizing stations at key locations. Keeping clean rooms properly ventilated will also prevent microbes from entering unintentionally.

Bell Chem is a chemical supplier based in Longwood, FL (just north of Orlando) with hundreds of products stocked in their 50,000+ square-foot warehouse, including chemicals specific for bakery uses. You can expect the highest quality products, expedited shipping options for maximum efficiency, and unrivaled personalized customer service. Let our knowledgeable and friendly customer service representatives and accounting staff personalize all your needs by either calling 407-339-BELL (2355) or by sending us an online message.

How to Handle Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace

Safety is important, especially when your business focuses on chemicals in any manner. Bell Chem is more than your standard chemical supplier; they back up these ideas with credentials: Bell Chem is certified OSHA compliant and has been audited by a third party to prove it meets or exceeds industry standards on GMP and HACCP requirements. In other words, Bell Chem backs up its words with safety practices. 

Training

Each member of your team must be properly trained before utilizing any chemical. This might mean hiring a chemical hygiene team or simply having one-on-one training for each new employee. Hazardous chemicals require specialized training for any individual handling or using the chemical.

Any method you choose should also include a safety standard operating procedure researched by your safety team and agreed upon by the managers responsible for employees handling chemicals. Be sure training is current and includes hands-on participation in both formal and non-formal testing environments. 

Personal Protective Equipment

To handle hazardous chemicals, it is imperative to understand how your surroundings and the human body will react to these chemicals. Most chemicals require gloves and a gown to handle properly, and hazardous chemicals always necessitate special protective gear. Know which chemicals require a face shield, rubber gloves, shoe coverings, et cetera. 

Be Aware

It may be unlikely for employees to work closely together with reactive chemicals, but to be sure nothing unexpectedly combusts, it is a good idea to know every chemical simultaneously used in a given setting.

Safety Data Sheets

A very important order of business is to read the safety data sheet (SDS) for each chemical before handling it to fully comprehend all safety measures. This concise information is easily processed with proper training (see above). These safety data sheets explain whether a chemical should be used under a vent hood, only with goggles, or simply with neoprene gloves, for instance. SDSs can be accessed online as well as within the packaging of any chemical.

Bell Chem is a chemical supplier based in Longwood, FL (just north of Orlando) with hundreds of products stocked in their 50,000+ square-foot warehouse, including a wide array of chemicals. You can expect the highest quality products, expedited shipping options for maximum efficiency, and unrivaled personalized customer service. Let our knowledgeable and friendly customer service representatives and accounting staff personalize all your needs by either calling 407-339-BELL (2355) or by sending us an online message.

Exploring the Use of Aluminum Sulfate for Water Treatment

The importance of using aluminum sulfate in water treatment cannot be overstated. Industrial chemical supplier Bell Chem stocks this quickly functional chemical that treats and purifies water under many conditions. Read how your industry can better utilize aluminum sulfate to treat water.

A dynamic flocculant 

Aluminum sulfate’s ionic properties allow it to snag microscopic particles such as phosphorus and nitrogen floating freely in water treatment areas, combining these smaller particles into much larger particles until they are physically unable to float. As the unwanted particles sink to the bottom of the tank, they are quickly filtered from the water. 

Municipal water tanks, as well as personal swimming pools, find this task quite useful since phosphorus and nitrogen are both nutrients algae devour, and the presence of algae in potable drinking water, fishing ponds, recreational lakes, or swimming pools never produces a positive outcome.

Why aluminum sulfate?

Reservoirs of potable water can be treated within the treatment facility. Treating water inside the facility also requires additional chemicals that can alter the smell and taste of drinking water. However, water treatment is exceedingly easier in cost and effort when the water is treated with aluminum sulfate before it enters the facility.

Stormwater-holding ponds and recreational lakes often find an excess of fertilizer runoff, which increases both turbidity and the presence of unwanted algae. Not only is this unsightly, it is unsafe for aquatic wildlife and recreational boating and swimming. Aluminum sulfate quickly eradicates toxic algal blooms by diminishing the presence of fertilizer runoff, which stanches the growth of algae and allows the aquatic animals and plant life to thrive. 

Bell Chem is your industrial chemical supplier based in Longwood, FL (just north of Orlando) with hundreds of products stocked in their 50,000+ square-foot warehouse, including aluminum sulfate. You can expect the highest quality products, expedited shipping options for maximum efficiency, and unrivaled personalized customer service. Let our knowledgeable and friendly customer service representatives and accounting staff personalize all your needs by either calling 407-339-BELL (2355) or by sending us an online message.

How to Safely Store Your Chemicals

Searching for the perfect chemical for your industry or job opportunity seems like the most important part of stocking chemicals. However, an even more important part of chemical ownership is their safe storage. Industrial chemical supplier Bell Chem’s expansive inventory proves chemicals can be stored and maintained without incident, but this does not come about accidentally. Our decades of expertise help you answer your chemical storage questions.

Storing acids

• Use storage cabinets specifically designed to house acidic chemicals.

• Dedicate cabinets solely to acids. Ensure the cabinet doors are labeled “corrosives.” 

• Ensure like acids are stored together. Do not mix flammable and inflammable acids, and separate oxidizing acids from organic and inorganic acids. 

• Store spill control chemicals and neutralizers in close proximity to acids. 

Storing bases

• Use storage cabinets specifically designed to house basic chemicals.

• Dedicate cabinets solely to bases. Ensure the cabinet doors are labeled “corrosives.” 

• Use proper containers for bases. For instance, inorganic hydroxides require polyethylene containers. 

• Store spill control chemicals and neutralizers in close proximity to acids. 

Storing compressed gasses

• Secure cylinders upright with chains, 8” to 10” off the floor.

• Replace the valve cap when not in use.

• Tag the cylinder’s status as “full,” “empty,” or “in use.”

Storing flammables

• Flammable liquids must be stored in an appropriate refrigerator or specifically designed cabinet.

• Store flammables far from combustible materials.

• Store spill control chemicals and Class D fire extinguishers in close proximity to acids. 

Storing oxidizers/explosive chemicals

• Maintain a cool temperature with low moisture around oxidizers. 

• Store oxidizers away from flammable and combustible materials, such as Bunsen burners, paper, cardboard, et cetera.

Storing peroxide-forming chemicals

• Ensure the chemicals are used within one year of opening by dating containers with the day of first use or by the expiration date.

• Store peroxide-forming chemicals in a cool, dark, dry area, but never refrigerate.

• Only store in airtight containers.

Storage guidelines for all chemicals

• For any chemical, check your inventory frequently and dispose of any chemicals that experience unwanted cloudiness, color or odor change, change in state of matter, pressure variation, or deterioration of the container. Use SDS guidelines for any chemical disposal.

• Heavy bottles of chemicals should be stored closer to ground level, but not directly on the ground, with light bottles stored higher. No corrosive or liquid chemicals should be stored above eye level.

• Lock all potentially dangerous chemicals when not in use. 

• Tightly cap refrigerated chemicals. Wrap in Parafilm if in doubt. 

• Volatile chemicals should be stored in ventilated cabinets.

• Do not store any chemicals in fume hoods since it may interfere with the performance of the hood. Likewise, do not store chemicals on a workbench. Return all chemicals to their proper storage areas when not in use.

Bell Chem is an industrial chemical supplier based in Longwood, FL (just north of Orlando) with hundreds of products stocked in their 50,000+ square-foot warehouse. You can expect the highest quality products, expedited shipping options for maximum efficiency, and unrivaled personalized customer service. Let our knowledgeable and friendly customer service representatives and accounting staff personalize all your needs by either calling 407-339-BELL (2355) or by sending us an online message.

Caustic Soda Beads and Their Uses Across Industries

The use of caustic soda beads – also known as caustic soda pearls, sodium hydroxide beads, or lye – to remove excessive buildup of tartrates in machinery tanks and lines is well known, but you may not realize how many industries utilize caustic soda beads. Industrial chemical supplier Bell Chem describes how your industry may benefit from stocking Bell Chem’s caustic soda beads, and how to properly handle this important chemical.

Aluminum production

Bauxite is the raw material that produces aluminum. Caustic soda dissolves bauxite ore.

Paper manufacturing

As wood is pulped and bleached, caustic soda is mixed with sodium sulfide to remove all impurities save cellulose, which ultimately becomes paper.

Soapmaking

Whether the base material is derived from plants or animals, caustic soda beads break down the oil components into fatty acids and glycerol causing saponification. 

Natural gas industry

Petroleum is produced and processed with the aid of caustic soda beads.

Textile industry

Cotton production occurs more easily with caustic soda beads. When cotton fibers are boiled in a caustic soda solution in a process known as scouring. This removes all impurities from the cotton.

Across industries

Caustic soda beads are vital as a feedstock in the chemical processes that eventually produce adhesives, fabrics, plastic, solvents, and other products. Because of the extreme alkalinity of caustic soda beads, they are often used to adjust the pH in many industrial chemical reactions. The cleaning power of caustic soda beads stems from its high alkalinity; it can quickly dissolve fat, grease, oil, and protein along with other organic materials.

Precautions with use

With a pH of 14, caustic soda beads are indeed caustic. As such, when dissolving them in water before use, be sure to add the beads to the water and not the water to the beads. Ensure the water is in a proper container that will react properly with highly alkaline chemicals. The reaction will cause an exothermic reaction, and the container will become hot to the touch. Stir slowly without splashing and wear protective clothing. Remember, caustic soda beads and caustic soda both break down organic matter and you are made of organic matter. Safety goggles and heavy-duty rubber or nitrile gloves are essential.

For cleaning surfaces, ensure the surface will react favorably with caustic soda. A 10% solution of caustic soda beads and water is usually sufficient for most cleaning projects. Spray the solution on the surface, and after 10 minutes rinse away as much residue as possible before air drying. Do not use caustic soda in food manufacturing, prepping, or dining areas. Use caustic soda as a cleaner and not as a disinfectant. While bacteria will not survive when sprayed directly with caustic soda, the disinfectant properties are not considered reliable enough to classify caustic soda as a disinfectant.

Bell Chem is an industrial chemical supplier based in Longwood, FL (just north of Orlando) with hundreds of products stocked in their 50,000+ square-foot warehouse, including caustic soda beads. You can expect the highest quality products, expedited shipping options for maximum efficiency, and unrivaled personalized customer service. Let our knowledgeable and friendly customer service representatives and accounting staff personalize all your needs by either calling 407-339-BELL (2355) or by sending us an online message.

4 Ways Isopropyl Alcohol is Used as a Cleaning Agent

While isopropyl alcohol is universally used as a disinfectant and solvent, many industries commend its uses as an ingredient in cleaning products. Industrial chemical supplier Bell Chem wants to share a handful of different methods isopropyl alcohol is utilized as a cleaner.

Cleaning with isopropyl alcohol

Any industry specializing in water-sensitive products, such as electronics, finds the expedient evaporation rate of isopropyl alcohol ideal for cleaning since it does not affect circuitry, semiconductors, fiber optic cables, LCDs, medical devices, and computer chips. The ultimate cleaning process for fuel cells, silicon, solar cells, and wafers involves isopropyl alcohol to ensure the final products are free of minute water particles.

Cleaning in the kitchen

Isopropyl alcohol removes grease, grime, soil, and oil along with other contaminants. 

Cleaning circuitry

Water and circuitry often present a shock hazard, and industry standards demand cleaning these components with highly concentrated isopropyl alcohol.

Cleaning floors

The ingredient list on professional floor cleaners and hard surface cleaners often contain isopropyl alcohol since this important chemical enhances the amount of time the cleaner clings to surfaces, then rapidly evaporates. As it cleans, it disinfects the surfaces from pathogens such as spores, bacteria, and certain viruses.

Cleaning machinery

Sticky buildups of grease and grime cause major problems in machinery. Applying isopropyl alcohol easily cuts through even old grease, quickly removing residue with a simple swipe of a cloth. How? Isopropyl alcohol is composed of negatively charged oxygen and positively charged hydrogen and carbon atoms; it is a polar molecule that reacts rapidly to both polar and nonpolar flux, oil, and resin. Even the tiniest nanoparticles are removed via submicron filtering utilizing isopropyl alcohol.

Bell Chem is your industrial chemical supplier based in Longwood, FL (just north of Orlando) with hundreds of products stocked in their 50,000+ square-foot warehouse, including isopropyl alcohol. You can expect the highest quality products, expedited shipping options for maximum efficiency, and unrivaled personalized customer service. Let our knowledgeable and friendly customer service representatives and accounting staff personalize all your needs by either calling 407-339-BELL (2355) or by sending us an online message.

Understanding Monosodium Phosphate and its Uses

White, crystalline monosodium phosphate is an inorganic sodium bound to a dihydrogen phosphate anion to form an anhydrous, monohydrate, or dihydrate compound. Industrial chemical supplier Bell Chem wants you to understand how monosodium phosphate is utilized throughout a variety of industries.

FOOD AND BEVERAGE

In both human food and animal feed, monosodium phosphate acts as an emulsifier to ensure all ingredients are properly mixed, as in dairy products and meats; and as a thickening agent to increase viscosity, as in mixes. The ability for baking powder to leaven breads and other baked goods is due to monosodium phosphate. Also in baked goods, monosodium phosphate functions as a binder, reducing the amount of dietary phosphate absorbed in the body’s digestive system. When used as an ingredient in sauces, monosodium phosphate acts as a curing agent. 

IN LABORATORY SETTINGS 

Reagents analyze chemical reactions in chemical and biological experiments. Monosodium phosphate’s buffering capacity is extensive, allowing more accurate readings for biochemical, chromatographic, and molecular experiments. In biology, monosodium phosphate purifies IgM antibodies.

LEATHER AND TEXTILE INDUSTRY

Textile fibers absorb more dye in an acid bath when monosodium phosphate is added since it acts as a buffer in low pH settings. 

INDUSTRIAL CLEANERS

Many acidic cleaners require a pH buffer such as monosodium phosphate to create the best cleaning solution, especially in hard water. Because hard water does not penetrate as readily as soft water, adding monosodium phosphate reduces the chemical composition of the water, thereby increasing the potency of detergents.

IN BOILERS

Boilers are important components of many line systems, but are often corroded through a constant stream of caustic liquids. Monosodium phosphate buffers feedwater by controlling pH levels, chemically altering highly acidic or alkaline liquids.

Bell Chem is an industrial chemical supplier based in Longwood, FL (just north of Orlando) with hundreds of products stocked in their 50,000+ square-foot warehouse, including monosodium phosphate. You can expect the highest quality products, expedited shipping options for maximum efficiency, and unrivaled personalized customer service. Let our knowledgeable and friendly customer service representatives and accounting staff personalize all your needs by either calling 407-339-BELL (2355) or by sending us an online message.

Aloe Vera Uses in the Personal Care Industry

The personal care industry and aloe vera have been tightly bound for millennia. Derived from the Arabic word alloeh, which translates to “shining bitter substance,” and vera, which is Latin for “true,” Aloe vera lives up to its truly shining, bitter moniker. At the turn of the first century, Greek scientists deemed aloe the “universal panacea” while Egyptians believed it was the plant of immortality. Personal care ingredient supplier Bell Chem stocks this wondrous product for your personal care needs.

SKIN AND WOUND CARE

Nefertiti and Cleopatra relied on aloe to maintain their youthful complexions. Aloe vera is loaded with antioxidants such as vitamins A, C, and E which neutralize free radicals. Free radicals are responsible for breaking down cellular function. When they are eliminated, cells live healthier lives and your skin glows with vitality.

More than a skin beautifier, though, aloe vera’s most famous use is in the treatment of severe radiation dermatitis and surface wounds. Alexander the Great and Christopher Columbus both treated soldiers’ and sailors’ wounds with aloe vera. In today’s world, aloe vera is the go-to cure for insect stings, sunburn, and minor skin breaks.

HOW DOES ALOE VERA DO THAT?

Enzymes within aloe vera reduce dermal inflammation. These enzymes work with the aid of minerals, and aloe contains calcium, chromium, copper, magnesium, manganese, potassium, selenium, sodium, and zinc to stimulate the enzymes into action. Aloe also contains 4 fatty acids that provide both analgesic and antiseptic properties. Aloe vera’s anti-inflammatory hormones aid in wound repair, and it is replete with amino acids (it contains 20 of the required 22 amino acids necessary for life as well as 7 out of 8 essential amino acids). To aid in absorption, aloe vera also contains lignin. Need more? How about saponins to clean wounds as they sterilize them? 

WHERE TO FIND ALOE VERA

• Aloe vera is regularly used in cleansers where it cleans the epidermis and reduces scarring.

• The antioxidants in aloe vera make it ideal for use in facial masks and skin toners.

• Aloe vera’s enzymes reduce the inflammation brought on by excess sun or heat exposure.

• The hygroscopic polysaccharides in aloe’s gel provide dry skin with much-needed moisture while, surprisingly, acting as a barricade to external microbes.

Bell Chem is your personal care ingredient supplier based in Longwood, FL (just north of Orlando) with hundreds of products stocked in their 50,000+ square-foot warehouse, including aloe vera. You can expect the highest quality products, expedited shipping options for maximum efficiency, and unrivaled personalized customer service. Let our knowledgeable and friendly customer service representatives and accounting staff personalize all your needs by either calling 407-339-BELL (2355) or by sending us an online message.

Understanding How Calcium Carbonate is Used in Water Purification

Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is literally the backbone of so many living things on our planet since it is a main component of skeletal tissue, as well as the outer coverings of shellfish, pearls, eggshells and corals. How can this compound be used to purify water? Industrial chemical supplier Bell Chem is here to answer that question for you.

Defining calcium carbonate

Working under the pseudonyms calcite, chalk, dolomite, lime, ground limestone, or whiting, calcium carbonate is a component of all these minerals. It appears as a white solid, but can be ground to a powder or crystalline texture. It easily pulls water from the surrounding environment, which leaves this compound damp to the touch. 

Calcium carbonate forms naturally and is often found in limestone aquifers and in desert climates. Calcium carbonate is generally considered water soluble. 

Water treatment uses

In water treatment facilities, calcium carbonate is naturally basic and increases the alkalinity of water. Acidic waters, which are on the increase due to acid rain, are neutralized with the addition of calcium carbonate. 

When combined with other chemicals to form calcium polysulphide or calcium hydroxide, these chemicals act as flocculants to adhere waste materials, creating a much heavier material that drifts to the bottom of tanks to be more easily removed. 

If these compounds are considered toxic, calcium carbonate partially negates their toxicity. For instance, soft water more naturally contains more toxic levels of copper, lead, and zinc since soft water increases these metals’ solubility. The addition of calcium carbonate is renowned for its negative effects on these metals’ water corrosivity.

Any detergents or cleansing agents present in drinking water are cleansed with the addition of calcium carbonate, which stifles their efficiency.

Taste matters

Calcium carbonate predicts a water’s “softness” or “hardness,” and the addition of calcium carbonate gives water a more appealing flavor since people tend to prefer harder water. 

Bell Chem is an industrial chemical supplier in Longwood, FL (just north of Orlando) with hundreds of products stocked in their 50,000+ square-foot warehouse, including calcium carbonate. You can expect the highest quality products, expedited shipping options for maximum efficiency, and unrivaled personalized customer service. Let our knowledgeable and friendly customer service representatives and accounting staff personalize all your needs by either calling 407-339-BELL (2355) or by sending us an online message.

Exploring the Types of Glycol Ether and Their Uses

Glycol ethers have a variety of uses across industries due to their far-reaching role as solvents. Industrial chemical supplier Bell Chem explains a few of their uses under the categories of “e-series” (ethylene oxide) and “p-series” (propylene oxide) formulations.

Ethylene Oxide Uses

Personal Care

In a process called ethoxylation, ethylene oxide creates more water soluble shampoos, conditioners, and body washes. 

Textiles

For printing, leather, and other textiles, e-series glycol ether acts as a solvent or co-solvent for industrial and waterborne coating. It can be found in dyes, enamels, water-based paints, lacquers and inks.

Medical Industry

The addition of ethylene oxide during the manufacture of medicines strengthens the delivery of those medications to patients. The ability to sterilize medical equipment is foremost in hospital care. Approximately 50% of all ethylene oxide produced is specified for sterilization of medical devices.

Chemistry

Ethylene oxide functions as a chemical intermediate in synthesizing ethanolamines, glycol ethers, and surfactants. The end results are products such as antifreeze, de-icers, gas drying agents, lubricants, and polyester resins. Using ethylene oxide as a raw material also produces polyester, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) – the building block for plastic bottles.

Automotive

Antifreeze and de-icers in vehicles are formulated to work in temperature extremes. Adding ethylene oxide counters these temperature fluctuations so well it is used not only in land vehicles but in commercial airliners as a de-icing agent.

Propylene Oxide Uses

Cleaners

Coupling solvents increase the reaction of a chemical, and propylene oxide is one of those components helping hard surface cleaners and many other soap/hydrocarbon formulations work through the toughest grime.

Degreasers

Industrial settings find p-series glycol ether a proven solvent. Many specialty formulae rely on p-series glycol ether as an ingredient. Studies have proven propylene glycol is less irritating and cleans better than ethylene glycol; for this reason many manufacturers are choosing p-series formulations over e-series. 

Polyurethane

As the main component of polyether polyols, propylene oxide’s foremost role is the manufacture of polyurethane.

Tree Nuts

Fumigating almond and pistachio orchards with propylene oxide prevents Salmonella contamination.

Bell Chem is an industrial chemical supplier in Longwood, FL (just north of Orlando) with hundreds of products stocked in their 50,000+ square-foot warehouse, including glycol ether. You can expect the highest quality products, expedited shipping options for maximum efficiency, and unrivaled personalized customer service. Let our knowledgeable and friendly customer service representatives and accounting staff personalize all your needs by either calling 407-339-BELL (2355) or by sending us an online message.