Snapshots in Sanitary Equipment: Developing an Eye for Hygiene
The old adage “a picture speaks a thousand words” is a well-used truism for a reason: Often, seeing something in a visual form sparks a much faster “Aha!” moment than one might experience during the more complex process of reading. When you think about the scientific and engineering tomes that we in the food safety and sanitation profession read—not to mention regulatory codes, compliance documents and standards guidelines, company best practices policies, and more—it is also easy to understand why it is desirable to use pictures to tell a story.
We all work in fast-paced manufacturing and food handling environments that don’t leave as much time as we may want to peruse the latest white papers or studies, and yet we are responsible for a wide range of activities that assure the safe production and delivery of foods to our customers. In addition, although we are in our food plants day in and day out, we do not always really see what’s happening on the floor. Humans tend to become innured to the environments in which they routinely work and as a result, may not notice very slight changes in that environment over time. This tendency can pose a significant disadvantage to a food production company when the overlooked element is a food safety hazard.
Equipment is the lifeblood of the food processing plant and the industry understands the important role that the machinery itself can play in enhancing food safety through improved sanitation. But like many items in our daily environment, we may pass by production lines, blenders, piping and compressors every day without really seeing the potential or existing problems posed by unhygienic and/or poorly positioned equipment and auxiliary machinery parts. Sanitary design and sanitation are partners—because if the equipment is not designed and built to be cleaned, it’s not going to get cleaned. If it is designed and built to be cleaned, sanitation will be more efficient and effective, increasing the food safety quotient. Understanding this is the first step to a successful, food safety payback outcome when plant sanitarians, engineers and maintenance crews discuss the purchase, upgrade, or renovation of processing and food-contact equipment.
Of course, the critical second step is to become more aware of what you may not be seeing when you look at existing equipment and components in order to make more informed choices, avoiding investing in poorly designed new equipment. Here, we’ll provide some of the core questions you should ask of yourself, your sanitation, engineering and maintenance colleagues, and your equipment suppliers during the decision-making process, and illustrate with photographs some of the common sanitary design problems that may exist in your plant.
Exposure to the Basics
Sanitary equipment design is defined as the engineered design of food handling, processing, storage facilities and equipment to create a sanitary processing environment in which to produce pure, uncontaminated, high-quality products consistently, reliably and economically. The universal guideline that is most useful to the food industry in this regard is Good Manufacturing Practices (21 CFR Part 110), Sec. 110.40, Equipment and utensils, which reads: (a) All plant equipment and utensils shall be:
• adequately cleanable
• preclude adulteration with lubricants, fuel, metal fragments, contaminated water, or any other contaminants
• installed and maintained as to facilitate the cleaning
• corrosion-resistant when in contact with food
• made of nontoxic materials and designed to withstand the environment of their intended use
(b) Seams on food-contact surfaces shall be smoothly bonded or maintained so as to minimize accumulation of food particles, dirt, and organic matter and thus minimize the opportunity for growth of microorganisms.
(c) Equipment that is in the manufacturing or food handling area and that does not come into contact with food shall be so constructed that it can be kept in a clean condition.
The American Meat Institute’s (AMI) 10 Principles of Sanitary Equipment Design also provides manufacturers and food handlers with clear and straightforward guidance, no matter what type of food you are processing or serving, The 10 principles state that equipment considered “sanitary” should be:
1. Cleanable to a microbiological level
2. Made of compatible materials
3. Accessible for inspection, maintenance, cleaning and sanitation without special tools
4. No product or liquid collection areas
5. All hollow areas hermetically sealed
6. No niches
7. Must be able to operate in a sanitary manner
8. Hygienic compatibility with other plant systems
9. Be able to validate cleaning and sanitizing protocols
Both the GMP and AMI guidance documents provide a good foundation for understanding what questions should be asked and answered when considering new equipment buys and existing equipment renovation or replacement decisions.
The Questions You Need to Ask: Exposing Problems
Although there are many questions that, when asked and answered, will provide insight into the sanitary equipment decision-making process, these 10 queries are certainly among the priorities to be considered.
1. Do the food contact materials meet the FDA criteria for surfaces?
There are five criteria that can be gleaned from relevant U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations. Simply put, food contact surfaces must be non-reactive with the product, non-contaminating of the product, noncorrosive, non-absorbent of any kind of liquid, and above all, cleanable, to ensure prevention of biofilm formation and harborage niches for microorganisms, allergen-containing residues or other chemical contaminants. The importance of these five criteria is obvious when we look at Photos 1 and 2a/b.
As shown in Photo 1, at high magnification, we see on the left a section of stainless steel plate as it was first received directly from the mill; note the cracks and crevices. On the right, after some time of use in a food plant, we can see that microbes have entered and settled into those cracks and crevices. If microbes take hold and survive on equipment for long enough, they exude a biofilm that is extremely difficult to remove. And, an incorrectly designed or manufactured piece of equipment can harbor a lot of bacteria. Photo 2a shows a microscopic hole in a stainless steel heat exchanger; Photo 2b shows the proliferation of bacteria in that hole when if less than adequate action is taken to clean to a microbiological level. It is clear that when unabated, these microorganisms will continue to grow and can easily reach the sterilized or pasteurized side of a unit.
Of course, microorganisms are not the only food hazards that hygienically designed equipment helps to address. Look around the plant. Is the equipment paint-free? Remember, you want food contact surfaces to be non-contaminating of the product in food production areas. Paint is not a good because it can peel and get into your product and without the protective coating, allow the equipment or component to rust (Photo 3). Peeling can be caused by a variety of things, detergents, hot water spray, or even just jarring a painted component with a cart and knocking the paint off. It may sound obvious but existing equipment that is painted should be replaced to avoid these inevitable problems.