|
Nickel magazine, Jun.
02 -- European experts in various
materials disciplines, including nickel stainless steels, have produced a set of guidelines for the selection
of hygienic materials and designs for food-processing equipment.
The Council of Europe's Committee of Experts
advises that the guidelines be considered when designing such equipment and when deciding on methods for
testing the performance of materials, both metallic and non-metallic.
"For the first time, practical advice is now
readily available to designers and fabricators," says Eric Partington, a consultant to the Nickel Development
Institute who participated in the production of Materials for Construction of Equipment in Contact with
Food, published by the European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group (EHEDG). "This advice will help ensure
the selection of the most suitable and cost-effective material for a defined application."
"The purpose of the new guidelines is to
increase designers' and fabricators' appreciation of just how much expertise is available from the supply
industries on how materials will behave under a range of operating conditions. Equipment manufacturers who
draw upon these resources will be better equipped to avoid technical pitfalls and to produce efficient and
hygienic plants with the excellent reliability and lifetime economics for which stainless steels are
renowned."
The EHEDG document focuses on the critical
stage where designers and operators must jointly anticipate, evaluate and control industrial hazards. In
doing so, they must ensure that machinery is capable of being properly installed, operated, cleaned and
maintained. In design terminology this process is known as "hazard and critical control point
analysis."
According to EC Directive 98/37/EC, machine
components that come into contact with a product must be cleaned before use and then regularly restored to an
acceptable level of cleanliness by means of disinfecting. Components that come into contact with food should
be cleaned by a process known as CIP (cleaning in place), and if this is not possible, they must be easily
dismantled and then cleaned. All surfaces and joints must be smooth, since ridges and crevices tend to
harbour organic materials.
The hardness and smoothness of stainless steel
enable it to resist the adhesion of soils and bio-films, allowing it to be easily cleaned and sanitizing.
Indeed, clinical tests prove stainless steel is significantly more hygienic than other food-contact
materials. Moreoever, the taste and colour of food products are not affected by stainless steels.
There is a 'family' of stainless steels that
provide such a wide range of properties that almost every individual engineering an aesthetic need can be
met. Such requirements as strength, corrosion resistance (particularly to strong cleaning agents),
formability and weldability generally indicate austenitic stainless steel
S30400 or
S31600.
Once the food products arrive in the home,
stainless steel utensils for food preparation, cooking and serving remain the 'best available' choices for
health-conscious consumers.
<< Previous -- Next >>
|
