Bulgarian Iodized Salt Project Report

BULGARIAN IODIZED SALT PROJECT REPORT

L. Rossi

Bourgas, 17 - 29 June, 2002

Table of Content

1. Background.

PART 1 - INSTALLATION AND TRAINING

1.1- Installation of the Iodizing Machine.

1.2- Test Runs and Modifications.

1.3- Calibration and Quality Control.

1.4- Conclusion and Recommendations.

PART 2 - THE WORKSHOP

2.1- The Workshop.

2.2- Technical Lecture.

2.3- Quality Control Lecture.

2.4- Advocacy and IEC.

2.5- Proposed National USI/IDD Workshop.

2.6- Estimated Budgets.

2.7- Conclusion and Recommendations.

ATTACHMENTS:

1- Workshop Schedule.

2- Workshop Lecture Material.

3- Workshop Participants Questionnaire and Comments.

4- List of Participants.

1. Background.

The “salt” visits to Bulgaria for the Universal Salt Iodization program started in 1996. That first visit was to provide a general over view of the situation which in that year there was little to no iodized salt on the market. In fact there was a “salt crisis” in the sense that although there was salt, the quality was below standard and the most important “quality salt” production center at Provadia was closed due to technical reasons and the new factory has to this dated never been installed due to the very high costs of installation and running costs.

Three years later, in 1999 a second visit was organized and this time, much progress had been made. The visit was not only to Bourgas but also to Varna. Now imported salt came either as iodized or was iodized locally and the salt works at Bourgas were undergoing changes. During the past years, MOH and UNICEF had made a change and more iodized salt was on the market. Viewing the process plant at Chernomorski Solnitzi (CS) or Black Sea Salt Works Ltd in Bourgas, it was evident that production could be easily increased with addition of an additional iodizing unit. Also important was that the new unit should provide a more modern approach so to ensure quality and efficiency.

The CS is gaining market share very rapidly. In previous years it’s market share has grown from less than a quarter to over 50% and growing. The company has also focused on image by changing the packaging logo and creating two brands identified by different quality for different price i.e.- differnt market nieches. Managment has also put a lot of importance on ensuring that production standards are maintained and has welcomed the further training of their personelle.

The company is planning a new stratagy for the next three years that will most certainly not only make them by far the most imporatnt market leaders but also become an important source and competition of quality iodized salt for the neibouring countries.

The achievement of success during this mission was due to the positive input of the engineers and technicians at the salt factory and with the iodizing unit installed, iodized salt production increased and technicians from production to quality control have been trained, Bulgaria is to be declared a 100% iodized salt consumer not only in table salt but in most of the iodized bread and now pickling salt.

PART 1 - INSTALLATION AND TRAINING

1.1- Installation of the Iodizing Machine.

Before entering into the subject of modifications it is best that the process of iodization at CS be explained.

A. Description of the iodization process is as follows:

A belt conveyor brings in the non iodized salt from an outside storage. The non iodized salt falls into a large feeding tank (Tank 1) which is positioned above the iodizing machine. This feeding tank in equipped with two micro switches. The top one switch, switches off the belt conveyor when the tank is full of salt. The second switch at the bottom of the tank switches on the belt conveyor when the tank is about to become empty.

The iodizing machine is installed under this feed hopper and with these two switches, it is guaranteed that the iodizing machine is always full of salt ensuring a continuous flow in processing non iodized salt.

The iodizing machine is equipped with a two dosing systems and a mixer/conveyor. All three elements ensures a constant and regular flow of salt and iodate and production of a homogeneous final product.

The first system is therefore a volumetric doser that ensures a constant flow of non iodized salt to the machine. This flow is fixed and cannot be changed easily. The second dosing is that of iodate and this is

done through a dosing pump. This pump can be easily regulated so that if the dosage of iodate is either high or low it can be immediately changed. Once the flow of non iodized salt meets the iodizing spray, both products are picked up by a screw conveyor/mixer of about 2 meters long and it is during this transportation that both salt and iodate are mixed so to produce a homogeneous product.

Iodized salt flowing out from the screw conveyor/mixer feeds a second feeding tank (tank 2). This tank is placed above a form-fill-seal packing machine which produces 2 Kg. poly bags of iodized salt. Tank 2 is fitted with two micro switches. The top switch, switches off the iodizing machine when the tank is about to over flow while the second switch placed at the bottom of the tank switches on the machine when it is about to empty. These switches operate depending on how the packing process is operating. If the packing machine is working, the flow of salt is constant but if the packing machine stops, at a certain point the iodizing machine also must stop hence the upper micro switch in tank 2. When packing resumes, as the level of salt in tank 2 arrives to the bottom switch, automatically the process of iodization switches on.

B. Modifications:

To install the iodizing unit, modifications had to be done to part of the factory building. During the past months, the roof of the area that houses the iodizing and packing units was dismantled and an extra floor and new roof reconstructed. Having completed the external brick and carpentry work, internal structural modifications had to be done in order to place tank 1 above the iodizing machine, install the iodizing machine and then position tank 2 above the packing machine.

1.2- Test Runs and Modifications.

The iodizing machine that was supplied is the latest “Glotra” model. The new model has as a gear box on the salt feeder instead of the cog and chain. While in the older model it was possible to increase the speed of production, with the gear box it is impossible to change the speed. Maybe the cog and chain was a better option.

Following were the problems resolved during the test runs:

Problem 1- Rate of production between the iodizing machine and the packing machine.

The Glotra manual states that the machine has a capacity of 7.5 tons per hour of iodized salt. Very soon after the test run had started, feed tank 2 was already empty and the iodizing machine was running with the packing machine producing iodized salt packs “just” at the limit of 2 kilograms. In other words the production rate of the iodizing machine was lower then the packing machine. Taking a pack count, the result was that the machine produced 64 x 2 Kg packs per minute or 3,840 kilos per hour far below what the Glotra declared production of 7,500 kilos / hour. Then taking a production rate count of the Glotra it’s result was 2,760 kilo per hour.

The feeder of the Glotra is a drum with 8 compartments. Upon inspection of the feeder unit I found that fine salt was packing up insid the compartments, creating a bridge and therefore reducing the volume of salt in each compartment that feeds the machine. I therefore decided to reduce the number of compartments to four which meant that having widened the compartment, the fine salt was unable to pack up and so increases the volume of salt feed. This modification increased the production from 2,760 kilo / hour to 4,320 kilo / hour.

Problem 2- Tank 1: The bottom micro switch did not function.

If the bottom micro switch of tank 2 does not function there cannot be a continuous flow of salt to the iodizing machine. Usually a micro switch will function with a slight touch of the button but because the sensitivity of the micro switch was not so good the switch was not responding to the “empty tank”. For this, the angle of repose of the salt was modified so that when there was no more salt in the tank, the weight was lifted off the switch so it could turn on the belt.

Problem 3- Leakage of the spray nozzle.

The spray nozzle had a persistent leak which increased the amount of iodate level in the salt (also an uneccesary loss of iodate which dripped on the packing machine technician one floor below). The fault was found in the Glotra factory installation and was corrected. As a safety precaution, a small rubber seal was added to absorb the vibrations.

1.3- Calibration and Quality Control.

Once the production was set and running without any problems efforts now was set on calibrating the production so that iodized salt would have a final quality as per Bulgarian standard meaning 28-55 ppm of potassium iodate.

Problem 1- High moisture content in the salt.

Using the rapid test kit and titration tests on salt that was iodized both gave negative results. Reason being that the moisture content in the salt was very high due to abnormal heavy rains during the previous days. The iodine solution would be diluted to such an extent that hardly no iodine would show so in order to identify the amount, it was then decided to dry the salt and using the test kit and titrating showed that iodiate was present.

The rains were so heavy that there were some serious floodings in the city of Bourgas. The salt works also suffered a 15 day loss in salt production.

Problem 2- Consistency in ppm.

The nature of the salt poses a great difficulty in so far as consistency in iodine content. The coarse natural sea salt comes in grains that vary from 4, 5 or 6 mm down to 0,5 mm or less and these variations can only result in an inconsistent content of iodine. What one can try to achieve is an average acceptable content of iodine.

This issue was discussed with the factory engineers and it was recommended to:

1. Screen the over size off;
2. crush the over size and
3. return the crushed to the screen

Unfortunately pieces of wood are in the salt and have already caused some small damage to the feeder. The damage does not effect the production quality.

Results from the first titration’s showed that we were too high; 57.08-73,50 ppm but at the end, after over twenty tests the iodizing machine was calibrated to iodize between 28.15 - 35,19 ppm.

1.4- Conclusion and Recommendations.

Most important I would like to express my appreciation for the very good work and the excellent cooperation I had with the engineers and technicians. It not only gave positive results on the technical side but also created an atmosphere of friendship.

I would strongly recommend that:

1. The salt is screened before iodization because:

- It avoids wood from entering the iodizing feeder causing damages;

- you can achieve a much better consistency in iodine content;

- the packed product will look more attractive and

- when used at home, the salt will have a better consistancy in solution.

1. Every day during iodizing, titration must be done at least three times. The first titration will start when production starts in the morning and until there is a satisfactory result, titration must continue. After that, a further two test (not less) must be done with about two hours difference.
2. Assistance must be given to the laboratory technicians who have a very long distance to walk in order to collect the samples. The laboratory technicians cannot do the lab tests and run up and down collecting samples.
3. A water pipe should be installed at the iodizing machine so the tank in which the iodate solution can be filled when required. To carry 60 liters of water up a narrow ladder is not a good idea.
4. The formula of 407 grams of iodate per 8.3 liters of water is the amount of water that should be carried up the ladder and then mixed with 51.7 liters of tap water.

As a final “technical” recommendation I suggest that the entire processing plant be replaced with equipment that can produce a higher standard table salt at a much lower cost of production.

PART 2 - THE WORKSHOP

Attachment 1 contains the daily schedual for the workshop and attachment 2 contains the guideline material that was presented at the meeting. The document was given to Chernomoski Solnitzi in the event they might want to modify and translate it and use it as a hand out for their employers.

2.1- The Workshop.

The workshop was held at the Bourgas Hotel where 29 persons participated from various government institutions, salt traders and technicians from the Chernomoski Solnitzi company (See: Attachment 4 - List of Participants). The sessions were divided between three lecturers:

NAMESUBJECT

1. Dr. Ludmilla Ivanova Laboratory techniques, quality control, monitoring and legislation;
2. Engineer Vassil Ivanov Different methods of producing salt and
3. Lorenzo Locatelli-Rossi Salt history and uses, Salt refining, iodine and iodizing, packing, distribution. Animal salt, salt branding, advocacy and national logo.

2.2- Technical Lecture.

The technical lecture was divided into three sections;

• General knowledge and usage’s on salt.
• Different methods of producing salt and
• salt refining, iodization, packaging, distribution, iodized animal salt, salt branding and marketing, social advocacy and the creation of a national USI logo.

The subjects that mostly attracted the audience were the subjects of salt harvesting (a video was shown), salt washing and refining followed by iodization techniques and the creation of a national logo. Subjects such as branding which includes packaging is of extreme importance but at this meeting there was only one person who had that interest.

2.3- Quality Control Lecture.

Dr. Ludmilla Ivanova is the head of the laboratory at the National Center of Hygiene, Medical Ecology and Nutrition. Dr. Ivanova is internationally well known in the field of USI/IDD, she is a director of ICCIDD and has participated in many international workshops specific to salt iodization.

Present at the workshop was a group from the national center of hygiene some from Sofia and some from Bourgas. It was the first time that these colleges had been exposed to such a meeting specific to iodized salt and this set off a request/demand of a national USI/IDD meeting. (See: Para.2.5 Proposed National Workshop).

2.4- Advocacy and IEC.

This section took everyone by surprise as they did not expect such an interesting program. Only one person publicly declared; quote. not to be interested. Unquote, as he did not care about the health of people but to make salt!

In the passed three reports it has always been suggested that the development of a USI/IDD advocacy plan is needed. Without having to make an indepth analysis on the subject, it is a very well known fact that if there is no education the future of the USI program is doomed to fail in time.

Furthermore, the advocacy plan of iodized salt is linked to health and should have a seal of quality guarantee famously known as the national logo. Working with local advertising companies a logo must be created and then handed out to producers/importers who can achieve the Bulgarian standard of iodized salt requirements.

An estimated budget has been prepared.

2.5- Proposed National USI/IDD Workshop.

The workshop has resulted in the realization that there are more steps to be taken in order to put a firm base to the USI/IDD structure ensuring that it will withhold the future generations of Bulgaria. For this, a national USI/IDD workshop should be planned for September 2002. Following are some suggested ideas:

• A managment group must be formed to prepare and manage the workshop.
• The workshop will be for 4 days plus 2 travel.
• A maximum of 28 person from the regional health inspetorate that will attend the workshop. Specific details for the workshop are to be prepared.
• There will be four trainers.
• There will be two days of theoretical work and one day at the salt factory.
• The fourth day all participants will come together to produce a final document (to be planned).
• The salt factory visits will be split in groups of 10 person per day.
• At the factory, five will visit the salt works/factory in the morning while the other five will work in the laboratory and visa versa.
• Travel from the hotel to the factory can be arranged with the salt factory management.
• Lunch for those participants working at the factory can be arranged through the factory managment.
• Each participant will be asked to bring a sample of their brand of iodized salt from home. They will also collect samples at the production site and then they will have to titrate the salt at the factory laboratory.
• Hotel accommodation at the Nesserbar Hotel close to Bourgas with the arrangement that for US$ 30.00 per person full board inclusive of all drinks and beverages will be provided. The hotel is new and all rooms have on suit bathrooms and satellite TV.
• It has been calculated that with US$ 15.00 per person public/private bus transport can be taken to reach the venue. Each person to arrange their arrival / departure with approval from the managment group.
• Because of the most favorable hotel arrangement, a DSA of US$ 5.00 is recommended.
• A meeting room can be arranged by the hotel.

2.6- Estimated Budgets