Filtration fabric produced by wet laid process

A wet laid process for forming a nonwoven food filtration fabric comprising the steps of:

• (a) preparing a homogeneous slurry of water and a plurality of fiber components of dissimilar denier and length wherein the fiber components are evenly distributed and intermingled, including a first fiber component of 30-60% staple polymeric fibers of high denier and a textile length, a second fiber component of 30-65% staple polymeric fibers of low denier and shorter length than the first fiber component, and a third fiber component of fibrous filler of shorter length than the first fiber component;
• (b) transferring the slurry to a wet laid forming machine and removing the water from the slurry through a porous forming wire mesh to form a wet fibrous mat or sheet;
• (c) applying a suitable binder in an emulsion or foam form to the wet sheet;
• and
• (d) drying the binder-impregnated wet fibrous sheet with sufficient heat to remove the water from the binder emulsion and cause polymerization of the binder and bonding together of the fibers,
• wherein said first fiber component is staple polymeric fibers of 15 denier and from 0.75 to 1.5 inch length, and said second fiber component is staple polymeric fibers of 1.5 denier and 0.5 inch length.