WHITE PAPER The importance of using cleaning equipment of good hygienic design has recently been recognised by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) who, in issue 7 of their Global Standard for Food Safety, newly state that ‘cleaning equipment shall be: hygienically designed and fit for purpose’[2]. This paper provides a summary of information, with regard to hygienic equipment design criteria, and illustrates, thorough the use of examples, good and bad hygienic design of food industry brushware. HYGIENIC DESIGN CRITERIA: European Hygienic Engineering Design Group (EHEDG) hygienic equipment design criteria Founded in 1989, the EHEDG is a consortium of equipment manufacturers, food industries, research institutes and public health authorities that aims to promote hygiene during the processing and packing of food products. The principal goal of EHEDG is the promotion of safe food by improving hygienic engineering and design in all aspects of food manufacture. For more information please visit URL:http://www.ehedg.org. EHEDG actively supports European legislation, which requires that handling, preparation processing, and packaging of food is done hygienically using hygienic machinery, in hygienic premises (EC Directive 2006/42/EC for Machinery[3], EN 1672-2[4] and EN ISO 14159[5] Hygiene requirement). EHEDG Guideline Document 8 ‘Hygienic Equipment Design Criteria’[6], and Document 32 ‘Materials of construction for equipment in contact with food’[7] provide some hygienic equipment design criteria, i.e. equipment should be/have, • free of crevices and contamination traps e.g. use of smooth welds, absence of small holes, recesses, and sharp internal angles • a smooth surface finish (Ra < 0.8μm) • easy to clean (and dry) e.g. quick and easy to dismantle/re-assemble, or of one piece construction, or with easy access to all areas for cleaning and disinfection • made of food safe materials e.g. no wood or glass, non-toxic • well constructed e.g. durable, no foamed materials, not painted or coated • non-absorbent • appropriately temperature and chemical resistant 3-A Sanitary Standards, Inc. (3-A SSI) The 3-A Sanitary Standards organisation is the more senior American equivalent to EHEDG, with the first 3-A Sanitary Standards for the advancement of food sanitation and hygiene being developed in the late 1920s. 3-A Sanitary Standards, Inc. (3-A SSI) was incorporated into the organisation in late 2002. The five Founding Members include the American Dairy Products Institute (ADPI), the International Association of Food Industry Suppliers (*IAFIS) the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP), the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), and the 3-A Sanitary Standards Symbol 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 Vikan A/S - Department of Research & Development 02Copyright © 2015 Vikan A/S · All Rights Reserved
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