WHITE PAPER Administrative Council. Additionally, leadership of 3-A SSI includes the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the 3-A Steering Committee. *IAFIS is now the Food Processing Suppliers Association. For more information please visit URL:http://www.3-a.org/. This non-profit organisation encourages the development of voluntary standards and accepted practices with regard to hygiene within food manufacturing. It also oversees the 3-A Symbol, used to identify equipment manufactured to 3-A Sanitary Standards, as part of its Third Party Verification (TPV) program. The mission of 3-A SSI is to enhance product safety for consumers of food, beverages, and pharmaceutical products through the development and use of 3-A Sanitary Standards and 3-A Accepted Practices. The criteria used by 3-A for hygienic design are similar to those stated by EHEDG. The Symbol of Assurance The 3A logo. The European Brushware Federation (FEIBP) Charter In 1995 the FEIBP established a Professional Hygiene Brush (PHB) Working Group to formulate an FEIBP Charter defining criterias for Professional Hygiene Brushware (PHB). All brushware bearing the FEIBP PHB logo (Figure 1), which is officially registered as an EU collective trademark under no. 010919132, are manufactured to the criteria set out in the FEIBP Charter [9] (see Appendix 1 for the relevant parts of the Charter with regard to this study). Figure 1. The FEIBP PBH charter logo. HYGIENIC DESIGN ASSESSMENT OF FOOD INDUSTRY BRUSHWARE: There are currently four established manufacturing processes for brushware commonly used by the food industry - Drilled and stapled; resin set; drilled and stapled resin set; and fused bristle. In 2015 Vikan introduced a fifth option, it’s Ultra Safe Technology (UST) brushware. Vikan has investigated these five brushware options, with regard to hygienic design, using microscopy and Ultra Violet (UV) sensitive lotion (as a contaminant). The samples were also assessed against established hygienic equipment design criteria. Methods Drilled and stapled, drilled and stapled resin set, and UST samples were investigated using a Leica M80 stereo-microscope and a Zeiss Evo 60 scanning electron microscope (courtesy of Campden BRI; Gloucestershire, UK). Additionally, drilled and stapled, resin set, and fused brushware samples were smeared with UV reactive lotion. Figures 2a shows a drilled and stapled brush ‘contaminated’ with UV lotion. Figure 2b shows the same ‘contaminated’ brush as seen under UV light. Figure 2a. ‘Contaminated’ brush. Vikan A/S - Department of Research & Development © Vikan A/S. Published, 2015. Revised, 2023 03
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