LPT 312: Abattoir Practices and Animal Products Technology (1+1)

POST HARVEST HANDLING OF BRISTLES

• Raw bristles have to be dressed before packing.
• In this process, these are first soaked in warm water containing washing soda for a few hours, scoured with detergent, then thoroughly rinsed with cold water and dried.
• The dried bristles are collected again with the precaution that root and flag ends do not get mixed at any stage.
• These are then tied into bundles.
• The dried bristles are sorted into grade of specific lengths by dragging.
• In this process, nearly 500g bristles are tied with a strap on a small wooden platform with their root or butt ends down.
• The longest bristles are first pulled out by hand, followed by next smaller ones and so on.
• The separate sizes are tied into bundles of about 100 g each.
• These bristles are again solid dressed and finally graded into bristles of uniform length and size.
• Kanpur is the biggest dressing centre in India, the other important ones being Jabalpur, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, etc.
• Bristles meant for use in shaving brushes or exports have to be sterilized to eliminate the chances of possible presence of anthrax spores and bacteria.
• It is accomplished by autoclaving them at 25-40 lbs pressure for about 1.30 hours.
• The wet disinfected bristles are dried in hot air oven at 60^oC or so to regain their stiffness.