A Solution To Every Problem

"We invented this technology to make  the apples safer -- and that's when our business grew substantially."
"We are not in the mask business. But when the news came out about a mask shortage we thought, well, if they need something to clean the masks -- we could clean them -- and because of all our work with food safety we had about a five-year running start at this."
"You never know where you are going to end up in life."
"It is kind of a simple story, really, about a guy who loved being a farmer, who had a farm selling candy apples and ran into a problem and fixed it -- for fruits and vegetables -- with something that also happened to work on viruses."
Paul Moyer, farmer, co-owner Clean Works

This man, 54, and his brother operate farms next to each other on land that has been in their family for the past 200 years, handed down from generation to generation. His is the most current generation to farm the land, a 130-acre piece of rural Ontario hard by Beamsville, Ontario. Aside from farming, Mr. Moyer produces a sweet-tooth favourite; candy apples. They're popular not just as traditional fare at fairs, but they can also be found, labelled as Moyers Apple Products, that retail what is called gourmet sweets products.

Back in 2015 a deadly listeria infectious outbreak made news in California. The listeria infection was traced back to candy apples, and although not directly implicating the Moyers Apple Products, publicity about the deadly infection threatened the thriving business, leading the Moyers family to consult with each other to find a solution to the problem of bacterial contamination. Although listeria can be found in any type of food, milk products, meat, processed meat and unpasteurized milk, it also infects fresh fruits and vegetables, picking up the bacterium from the soil.

Well, it might not be practical to try to sanitize whole arable fields, but focusing on the products out of the fields could work. They decided to consult with Professor Keith Warriner, a food scientist at University of Guelph, and with his help a purpose-specific mechanical device was designed and produced which would effectively sterilize fresh fruits and vegetables. The device makes use of ultraviolet light, hydrogen-peroxide gas and ozone.

Named the Clean Flow Mini the machine is 99.99 effective in killing pathogens, listeria included, along with mould and mildew. Out of its successful production came a new pathway for the agro-business-involved family. The Clean Flow Mini is in demand on other farms, having been given attention through awards causing it to be adopted by the industry. A decade ago, five employees prepared the Moyer products. At the present time, up to 30 people work at production.

Finally, while the world threatened to spin off its axis since the SARS-CoV-2 virus began haunting global populations and people were dying in untold numbers from a terrifying new global pandemic, amidst a frantic search for personal protection equipment for health workers vulnerable to the infectious disease in their physical proximity to sufferers, it occurred to Paul Moyer that he could offer help.

iStock.com/gpointstudio

His sanitizing machine, so proficiently effective with vegetables and fruits could also disinfect sanitary masks worn by health professionals, partially solving a critical shortage of the N-95 gold-standard masks. He and his team of employees began placing used masks well steeped in a host of viruses into the Clean Flow Mini to cleanse them. the mini has the capacity to clean 800 masks hourly, and it has been renamed appropriately enough, the "health-care mini".

It has been approved by Health Canada and now the production line that would spit out a single unit weekly for farmers, now produces 15 of the units every week, to fill a backlog of 75 orders with more expected -- to supply hospitals, long-term care homes and the Department of National Defence with the efficient and effective little cleansing machine.

The Clēan Flow Health Care Mini can sanitize up to 800 N95 masks per hour, the company says. (Clean Works)

"These guys at the NRC [National Research Council] and Health Canada, they worked the past two weeks, I would say 24/7, with us to validate and ensure that the technology provides the health-care workers with the solutions that they need."
"It was quite an extensive walk that we did but, again, it was to get a solution out there to health care providers."
"You can move it from boardroom to boardroom, if that's what's required, or from floor to floor in hospitals and institutions."
"It's not a big, bulky machine of any sort. It's very portable. That's the way that we designed it."


Mark VanderVeen, president and CEO, Clean Works