RAW MATERIAS HANDLING SHOWERS & TOILETS PACKAGING AREA (PRESSURISING) WC
Figure 7.3. Example of a simplified factory layout (drawing by V. Popescu).
7.1.4 Utensils and equipment
A great variety of utensils and equipment is used in the fish industry. There is an abundance of advice and regulations available concerning the requirements for equipment. All of them agree that the food equipment should be non-contaminating and easy to clean. In particular, all food contact surfaces (utensils, knives, tables, cutting boards, boxes and containers, conveyer belts, gloves, aprons etc.) must be designed and of such material as to be easily cleanable. Such surfaces shall be constructed of non-toxic, non-absorbent material that is resistant to the environment, the food, cleaning and disinfecting agents. Food contact materials that should be avoided are: wood, ferrous metals, brass and galvanised metals. However, the degree of stringency in hygienic requirements must be related to the product being processed. Raw fish, for example, do not require the same standard of hygiene as cooked and peeled shrimp. Criteria for hygienic design are particularly important for equipment used in the later stages of processing and particularly after a bacteria- eliminating processing step. There are seven basic principles for hygienic design agreed upon by a working party appointed by the Food Manufacturers Federation (FMF) and Food Machinery Association FMA (FMF/FMA, 1967) as quoted by Hayes (1992):
• All surfaces in contact with food must be inert to the food under the conditions of use and must not migrate to or be absorbed by the food
• all surfaces in contact with food must be smooth and non-porous so that tiny particles of food, bacteria, or insect eggs are not caught in microscopic surface crevices and become difficult to dislodge thus becoming a potential source of contamination
• all surfaces in contact with the food must be visible for inspection or the equipment must be readily disassembled for inspection, or it must be demonstrated that routine cleaning procedures eliminate possibility of contamination from bacteria or insects
• all surfaces in contact with food must be readily accessible for manual cleaning, or if not readily accessible, then readily disassembled for manual cleaning, or if clean-in-place
techniques are used, it must be demonstrated that the results achieved without disassembly are the equivalent of those obtained with disassembly and manual cleaning • all interior surfaces in contact with food must be so arranged that the equipment is self
emptying or self draining
• equipment must be so designed as to protect the contents from external contamination • the exterior or non-product contact surfaces should be arranged to prevent harbouring of
soils, bacteria or pests in and on the equipment itself as well as in its contact with other equipment, floors, walls or hanging supports.
In the design and construction of equipment it is important to avoid dead areas where food can be trapped and bacterial growth takes place. Also dead ends (e.g. thermometer pockets, unused pipe work, T-pieces) must be avoided, and any piece of equipment must be designed so that the product flow is always following the “first in first out” principle
Cleanability of equipment involves a number of factors such as construction materials, accessibility and design. The most common design faults which cause poor cleanability are (Shapton and Shapton, 1991):
• poor accessibility - equipment should be sited at least 1 m from a wall, ceiling or the nearest equipment
• inadequately rounded corners - minimum radius should be 1 cm, but 2 cm is regarded as optimum by the American 3-A Sanitary Standards Committee (Hayes, 1992)
• sharp angles
• dead ends - including poorly designed seals.
One general problem of food processing involves the extremes of temperature, abundant use of water, development of condensations and contamination of food from overhead pipes and surfaces. Equipment design must consider this and include proper protection.
Equipment design is one of the major problems in modern food hygiene. A great number of new machines and equipment are designed and constructed without proper attention to the fact that these tools have to be cleaned and sanitised. The EC (1992) addresses machinery safety and hygiene regulations. Some of the highlights are:
• machinery containing materials intended to come in contact with food must be designed and constructed so that these materials can be cleaned before each use
• all surfaces and their joinings must be smooth, with no ridges or crevices that could harbour organic materials
• assemblies must be designed to minimise projections, edges and recesses. They should be constructed by welding or continuous bonding, with screws, screwheads and rivets used only where technically unavoidable
• contact surfaces must be readily cleaned and disinfected, and built with easily dismantled parts. Inside surfaces must be curved in a way to allow thorough cleaning
• liquid derived from foods, as well as cleaning, disinfecting and rinsing fluids should be readily discharged from machinery
• machinery must be designed and constructed to prevent liquids or living creatures – primarily insects – from entering and accumulating in areas that cannot be cleaned
• machinery must be designed and constructed so that ancillary substances, such as lubricants, do not come in contact with food.
The directive also sets out a certification system where machinery is checked for compliance and tagged with an EC mark if found to be satisfactory. Certification is not retrospective and manufacturers have two years to bring new machinery into compliance.
Apart from literature already cited, additional useful material and information on hygienic design are found in Milledge (1981) and Gould (1994).
A great variability exists in the size, of and extent of handling in, fish processing establishments. Accordingly, the hygienic requirements in, and the design of, fish handling areas may vary considerably. Quite obviously the requirements that a small establishment which is only repacking fish in ice and catering for a local market, must meet are different from the hygienic requirements of a large establishment that is processing a variety of sophisticated products including heat treated and composite products and exporting to countries all over the world. Also the requirements commonly listed in legislation and codes of practice are not equally important. The more important factors include: facilities for water supply, waste disposal and cooling and cold storage facilities and –capacity. Of less importance are buildings, ventilation, factory location, clothes changing facilities, lightning and roadways (ICMSF, 1988).
The forms shown in Appendix 1 have been utilized in assessing fish factories using the HACCP principles. Only the most important factors are evaluated and given a rating from A to C, where A and B are expressions of degrees of excellence and niceties, while a rating of C is given to a condition which is unacceptable and needs immediate correction before further operations can take place. Thus it is an attempt to “distinguish between the nice and the necessary” which is the same approach as applied in the HACCP principles.
7.2 Operational conditions including GHP
A range of operational conditions must be in place prior to the implementation of HACCP in order to control the risks or safety concerns related to the environment and the personnel. The existence and the performance of such a programme must be well documented with written procedures, assigned responsibilities, measurable acceptance criteria, defined record keeping activities and procedures to be followed when acceptance criteria are not met. A written standard format as shown below using 5 of the 7 HACCP principles is useful as a guideline or checklist and to ensure that all essential points have been considered.