Hygienic design and its role in certified food safety management
By ensuring their buildings and machinery comply with hygienic design guidelines, food manufacturers not only reduce risk within their processes, but also incur a number of additional benefits. Here, the food safety experts at Sesotec discuss the importance of hygienic design for food processing equipment as it relates to regulatory approval and food safety standards.
What is hygienic design
for food processing equipment?
Hygienic
design refers to designing all components of food processing machinery in order
to facilitate cleaning and reduce the risk of contaminating food products with
biological, chemical or physical hazards.
A few examples
of hygienic design for food processing machinery include:
Sealing
off dead spaces, such as crevices and gaps
Ensuring
all food contact areas are accessible for cleaning
Eliminating
the build-up of condensation
Using
materials that can be repeatedly and intensively cleaned without abrasion
Eliminating
components that may loosen, break off and fall into food products
Installing
drying or draining mechanisms for equipment sanitised with wet-cleaning methods
Why is hygienic design
important for food safety?
The
hygienic design of food processing equipment has a significant impact on food
safety.
Food
manufacturing and processing businesses are required to ensure their products
are free from biological, chemical and physical contaminants. Inadequate
hygienic design can heighten food safety risks by increasing the likelihood
that food processing equipment itself becomes a vector for cross-contamination.
By building
sanitary equipment that is easy to clean, resistant to wear and free of areas
where moisture can accumulate, hygienic design greatly helps to reduce the contamination
risks inherent in food processing.
The role of hygienic design
guidelines in food safety standards
Another
compelling reason to comply with hygienic design best practises is that
applying them is necessary to receive regulatory approval and food safety
certifications.
Around the
world, regulatory authorities and certification programme owners incorporate
hygienic design best practises into their standards for the fabrication,
installation, maintenance and cleanability of food processing facilities and
equipment. In order to comply with food safety law or become certified with a
third-party food safety standard, food manufacturers must invariably adhere to
the best practises of hygienic design.
In the
European Union and the United States, there are two prominent organisations whose
guidelines for hygienic design inform both food safety law and international
food safety standards: the European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group
(EHEDG) and 3-A Sanitary Standards, Inc. (3-A SSI).
Here is an
overview of how these organisations promote their guidelines for hygienic
design in partnership with certification programmes and regulatory authorities:
EHEDG in the European
Union
The EHEDG
is a non-governmental organisation based in Europe that is dedicated to the promotion
of hygienic design in food engineering. Their team of food safety experts and
engineers has published upwards of 50 guidelines for the hygienic design of
food processing facilities, production environments and a wide range of food
processing equipment.
In the
third edition of their hygienic
design principles, EHEDG describes a series of provisions intended to
prevent contamination by foreign particulate (Doc. 8, chp. 4.5). These guidelines
include considerations about the selection of construction materials, the use
of hygienic shields over all open products and containers and the
implementation of an effective preventative maintenance programme, amongst
other things.
EHEDG offers
certification programmes for food manufacturers as well as suppliers of
sanitary food manufacturing equipment. While official certification is
voluntary for food processors, applying EHEDG guidelines is a necessary part of
compliance with legal requirements for hygiene and food safety as prescribed by
European laws. These laws include EU Nr. 10/2011 and EC 1935/2004, which regulate the kinds of materials
and articles that may come into contact with foods.
3 A SSI in the United
States
3‑A SSI was
created in the 1920s as a collaboration between American professional
sanitarians, equipment fabricators and processors to improve the hygienic
design of milk pipe fittings. Today, 3‑A SSI maintains 70 different sanitary
standards for a wide range of food processing equipment with particular
emphasis on dairy products. The 3‑A symbol is a registered mark that can be
featured on food processing equipment that meets their sanitary standards.
3-A
guidelines for equipment manufacturers also include criteria that can help to
prevent physical contamination. These criteria cover topics such as material
selection, requirements for the surface finish of equipment and the elimination
of flaws such as pits, folds and crevices.
Like EHEDG,
3‑A certification is voluntary. However, 3-A standards serve as important
references for regulatory authorities in the United States, such as the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) and Department of Agriculture (USDA). For
example, the USDA Dairy Division has an approval process for all equipment used
in dairy facilities – and all equipment that that conforms with relevant 3-A
standards meets these requirements by default.
International food safety
certification and hygienic design
The Global
Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) is a leading international organisation dedicated
to the continuous improvement of food safety management systems worldwide. They
develop benchmarking requirements for owners of food safety certification
programmes, such as IFS Food, SQF, BRCGS and more.
In 2020,
GFSI published a new and more robust set of benchmarking requirements for
hygienic design: GFSI JI (for building constructors and equipment
manufacturers) and GFSI JII (for building and equipment users).
The
criteria laid out in GFSI JI and JII were not only informed by standards from the
EHEDG and 3‑A SSI, but were actively indorsed by these organisations. As such,
all international food safety certification programmes recognised by GFSI involve
implementing hygienic design best practises developed by EHEDG and 3-A SSI.
What additional benefits
can hygienic design in food processing equipment offer food manufacturers?
Beyond
reducing contamination risks and helping achieve compliance with food safety
standards, food processors and manufacturers stand to boost productivity by
ensuring their facilities and processing equipment are built according to
hygienic design principles.
Cleaning is
amongst the most time- and resource-intensive aspects of running a food
manufacturing or processing facility. According to one study, half of food
industry business reportedly spend at least 10% of their annual
turnover on cleaning.
Food
processing equipment that adheres to hygienic design principles helps to
expedite thorough cleaning processes and reduce the time and money that
businesses spend sanitising machinery, thus boosting their profitability.
Conclusions
From their mixing machines, to their packaging
lines, to their metal detectors and x-ray
inspection devices, food industry businesses have a lot to gain by ensuring
their equipment is built according to recognised standards for hygienic design.
In addition to helping improve the safety and quality of their products,
hygienic design can boost a business’s profitability by reducing the time and
resources spent cleaning. Furthermore, because both legal regulations and
third-party certification programmes evaluate hygienic design, food industry
businesses can facilitate approvals and certifications by complying with
hygienic design guidelines throughout their processes.
E-Book: Food Safety - What food processors need to know
The food industry is among the most regulated industries in the
world. Manufacturers and processors must comply with a multitude of laws,
rules, regulations, ordinances, and guidelines in order to produce and market
foods in different regions.
This e-book
is meant to offer a comprehensive overview of the varying and influential
factors shaping the future of
food manufacturing and processing. We hope you find many valuable and
interesting pieces of information inside.
