Modern trends raise the bar for hygienic design of production equipment From time to time, manufacturing companies or food processing companies face problems due to microbial food contamination. This can be expensive if the company has to recall some of the products. Nowadays, there is a strong consumer-driven tendency to make preservation technology as mild as possible – there is a preference on the market for less preservatives and more fresh foods. This, however, means that the processed foods are even more sensitive to microbial contamination. And this means that the companies that manufacture the equipment used for food processing need to display greater control over the manufacturing process. In order to get more control over the subsequent contamination risks, one way is to make hygiene an integral part of the equipment design from the very beginning. If hygiene is a priority from the very beginning, the result will – plain and simple – be better hygiene. Find more information here: Hygienich Machinery Parts
Designing hygienic equipment is important in order to be able to control the microbiological quality and safety of the products that are made. If a factory is to be hygienic, it should work on preventing its products from having high microbial counts, toxins of microbial origin or residues of chemicals from cleaning and disinfecting procedures. But this is not all of it. If a facility produces food, it should also prevent the food from being mixed or contaminated by non-food elements, such as lubricants, coolants or maybe even pieces of metal, plastic, packaging material, insects or parts of insects or vermin. This seems very complicated, but there is a growing body of research as well as new international standards that lay out guidelines and regulations for how to make a facility hygienic.
When designing hygienic equipment, there is a number of factors that you have to take into account. Some of these factors are:
What materials come into contact with what products and product materials? What happens when the materials meet? If it is food or medicine, the construction material of the equipment cannot in any way compromise the processed product or make it toxic.
The equipment should be self-drainable. This makes it possible for all residues of products and chemicals to be removed by themselves.
If designed with hygiene in mind, all equipment should be easy to clean. This means that all surfaces should be smooth and not have any sharp corners, cracks, things that protrude or shadow zones. If a surface is not clean, it protects the microorganisms by being destroyed by heat or chemicals.
It is important to remember that hygiene is in the detail. When we write this, we mean to say that there is a risk or safety hazard in every single machinery part that is not hygienic – or every single part where hygiene has not been integrated into the design from the very beginning. Even the smallest detail has to be hygienic – for instance the wheels, the conveyor belts or the side guides for conveyor belts. If factories build the process lines with hygienic equipment, if they live up to hygienic requirements, and if they operate and maintain the equipment correctly, then the product – be it medicine or foods – will be of excellent quality.