The Directive
GEA Liquid Processing actively
participates in EHEDG to comply with EU Directive EN 1935/2004 among other
things. This Directive provides guidelines for all materials and articles
intended to come into contact with food. When you read it for the first time,
you might be misled to believe that it only deals with the quality of primary
construction materials, eg. stainless steel of some kind or another or various
plastic materials, etc.
However, this Directive concerns all materials
coming into contact with food, also referred to as "active" materials. But what
does that include?
Lack of knowledge
Below, I will
focus on the active materials most commonly used in the food industry, namely
detergents.
Detergents, and especially functional detergents, are
increasingly used in the daily food production. Some might say this is to
increase food safety and product shelf-life.
My claim is that there is a
lack of knowledge of Hygienic Design among decision makers when it comes to the
purchase of new production equipment. Furthermore, there is insufficient focus
on the total costs, ie. the investment as well as the operating costs, also
referred to as Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). The purchasers' focus is
primarily on the price of investment - and when, at the same time, many
machinery manufacturers and plant constructers fail in demonstrating the
obvious advantages of running a plant built in line with the existing Hygienic
Design Guidelines, it is no wonder that the price of investment often becomes
the key selling factor, leading to a somewhat cheaper, but less appropriate
solution.
Cleaning problems
Non-hygienic plant
design not only leads to increased consumption of chemicals, water and energy.
It also gives rise to cleaning problems. If a plant is difficult to clean after
production, one will also have difficulties in getting all the detergents out
of the plant before starting up production again. And this takes us back to the
EU Directive prescribing that we must secure our food against contact with
"active" materials in the process plant.
Self-reinforcing
vicious circle
Bacteria have the particular ability of adjusting
themselves to the environment they are exposed to - and of developing
resistance to the products formulated to remove them. The examples of still
more complex detergents are numberless, just like we often see that chemical
concentration is increased to ensure proper cleaning of the process equipment.
This development results in more resistant bacteria and, in conse¬quence, a
more difficult cleaning, in other words a self-reinforcing vicious circle.
Bacteria need only little space to build a nest in a process plant. A small
crevice will do, and therefore it is of vital importance
that the
components built into a process plant - such as valves, pumps and pipe
connections - are certified and easy to clean.
EHEDG
certification
The certification can be performed by EHEDG
(European Hygienic Engineering & Design Group) established by a group of
international food manufactures and process equipment manufacturers in Germany.
EHEDG has a Danish chapter, too, functioning under the auspices of the Danish
interest group Stålcentrum (Steel Centre).
Hygienic plant
design
GEA Liquid Processing in Skanderborg, Denmark, employs
components produced by GEA Tuchenhagen in Germany. All of these components are
EHEDG certified and also comply with EU 1935/2004. However, the right choice of
components for a process plant does not imply that the total plant is
hygienically designed and installed. For more than 30 years GEA Liquid
Processing has dealt with hygienic plant design, installation and process
integration, and therefore we are an experienced partner for the performance of
such tasks. Moreover, GEA Liquid Processing activel y participates in the first
steps made to develop a cleaning test and certification scheme for complete
process plants and machinery.
Environmental benefit
The advantages of designing and installing production plants in line with
the Hygienic Guidelines issued by EHEDG and by the Competence Centre of the
Danish Stainless Steel Industry, Stålcentrum, are obvious. Hygienic Design not
only reduces the consumption of detergents and the cleaning time, and
consequently the company's expenses for chemicals, water and energy. Hygienic
Design also provides a considerable environmental benefit, which, with the
increasingly high focus put on the consumption of our valuable groundwater,
energy and discharge of C02 and other substances into nature, will be to the
company's benefit, too. And last but not least, the company will comply with
the demands made in EU Directive EN 1935/2004.
For further information
about EHEDG please go to www.ehedg.org or visit www.gea-liquid.dk.
You can download the article as a PDF File here: EU Directive EN 1935/2004 - The New Standard!