Tim Christopher, Director of Total Plant Assessments, Ecolab
Key takeaways:
- CIP cycle time is the top cleaning and sanitation drag on food manufacturing performance. Impedance sensors that provide real-time soil load visibility let operators end cycles the moment they’re effective, cutting energy use and recovering lost production time simultaneously.
- Switching from caustic to enzymatic cleaners lets manufacturers clean at temperatures as low as 140°F instead of 180°F, reducing energy demand per wash while extending equipment life and lowering safety risk on the floor.
- Water circularity (reducing inputs, reusing rinsewater for thermal exchange, and recycling where possible) cuts energy demand at multiple points in the CIP process and builds structural resilience against future energy price volatility.
Spring 2026 has quickly shown how external forces can spike the price of key inputs without warning. Overnight, energy costs in previously energy-plentiful environments can turn from background noise into a deafening alarm bell.
But this is far from the first global energy hiccup. Current conditions make it abundantly clear. When food and beverage manufacturers don’t factor unpredictable energy costs into their long-term outlook, they’re chaining themselves to painful fluctuations beyond their control.
Enough is enough. In 2026, it’s time to take back some of that control.
Lower energy needs are a form of business agility. With a few tweaks to their cleaning and sanitation strategy, food and beverage leaders can increase that agility by reducing the amount of energy required for core functions. Especially when it comes to clean-in-place (CIP) systems, manufacturers can lower their energy usage (and their exposure to price volatility) by focusing on three critical areas:
- Time: How long CIP takes
- Temperature: How hot CIP chemical solutions must be to be effective
- Water: How closely a facility’s water strategy aligns with essential water circularity principles
In each of these areas, rethinking legacy approaches can immediately cut energy use so that, in moments of cost volatility, a plant’s profitability is minimally affected.
Here’s how.
Time: Reclaim your production schedule
A thorough cleaning takes time. Every moment of that time requires energy. And as recent history makes clear, energy is a highly variable cost input. Every second spent pumping water through CIP equipment represents a greater likelihood of profitability issues if and when energy prices rise.
Traditionally, any pain this causes has been filed under “that’s just the cost of doing business.” After all, lost production time and higher energy costs, even needing to pass costs onto consumers, are all vastly preferable to a reputationally harmful food safety incident.
But the downside of long CIP cycles shouldn’t be ignored. Long CIP cycle times are a significant source of operational pain and a drag on overall performance. This is pain stemming from industry-standard SSOPs that are frequently wasting time and energy running water through already-clean equipment.
But here’s the good news: New sensors are making overlong CIP a thing of the past.
Impedance sensors can create a detailed “fingerprint” of a specific plant’s process water and compare its composition at two key points: when it enters CIP lines and when it leaves. The result is real-time visibility into soil load removal, which allows operators to determine the moment that a CIP has done its job so they can move on to the next step.
It’s hard to overstate how impactful this visibility is on CIP operations. Armed with real-time assurance that the CIP has been effective and optimized, food and beverage leaders no longer need to rely on rigid SSOPs for assurance. Effectively, they can replace those legacy controls (which drive up energy costs beyond what is necessary) with responsive analysis that directly lowers energy demand.
In general, digital visibility platforms are a powerful way to not only lower energy costs but also optimize CIP as a whole. By collecting and analyzing CIP data in real time, these tools can score CIP performance against custom SSOPs, offering a new level of insight into how much water, energy and time is being spent throughout a cycle and flagging opportunities for better efficiency. In other words, these tools create an unprecedented chance to optimize SSOPs over time, saving manufacturers time, water and energy in the process. AI-enhanced software is pushing this function even further by picking up trends and highlighting them before they have a chance to undermine process efficiency.
What’s more, faster CIP cycles also boost production capacity, allowing manufacturers a greater degree of control over how (and how much) they produce. That’s a win-win.
Temperature: Keep your cool with alternative cleaners
For decades, caustic cleaners have dominated CIP cleaning for a pretty simple reason: They work really well.
But that efficacy comes at a cost, literally. To achieve full soil removal, caustic solutions must be heated to temperatures as high as 180°F. Adding (and re-adding) heat not only eats away at production time, but it also requires massive amounts of energy per wash, which means a consistent (and painful) level of cost that manufacturers need to swallow.
New alternatives to caustic cleaners ease the pain of temperature-related energy costs by allowing manufacturers to clean at lower, even ambient temps. Enzymatic cleaners, for instance, are stable and effective in reuse CIP rigs at temperatures as low as 140°F.
Beyond their energy-saving value, enzymatic cleaners help further reduce overhead costs because they are gentler on equipment compared to the eroding chemicals in traditional caustic chemistry. And because they don’t need to be as hot to work, they also pose a significantly reduced threat to employee safety. Another win-win.
Water: Drive better efficiency and sustainability with water circularity
At its core, water circularity describes a reliable sustainability strategy: reduce water inputs, reuse water whenever possible, and recycle water that can create additional value.
But the benefits of water circularity extend far beyond meeting sustainability goals. Circularity principles can also help streamline processes and, in certain cases, reduce energy usage via the strategic management of water throughout the production process.
Consider the energy that goes into pumping water through CIP systems. When this amount of water is reduced (by using the impedance sensors described above, for example), total energy demand drops significantly.
And consider the thermal exchange that takes place when already-hot rinsewater is repurposed as a new source of heat. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, when cool rinsewater is repurposed as a coolant that prevents overheating in mission-critical equipment. Reusing water can help lower energy costs related to changing the temperature of water coming directly from a wastewater treatment plant.
In certain cases, recycling water can even create energy on its own terms. In brewery contexts, for example, biogas reclamation can turn used CIP solutions into a supplemental source of fuel.
In all of the above cases, a thoughtful and customized approach to water circularity, and cleaning and sanitation more generally, can support reduced energy costs and greater resilience in the face of energy volatility.
Tim Christopher is director of total plant assessments at Ecolab, where he has spent more than 22 years helping food and beverage manufacturers optimize cleaning and sanitation operations. He specializes in identifying practical strategies that reduce energy, water, and time costs without compromising food safety.
