Baking & Snack - March 2010 - 88

◀ Incorporating sanitation and cleaning
requirements at an early stage in equipment
procurement can contribute not only to processing efficiencies but overall food safety.
JOE STOUT, KRAFT FOODS, INC

▼ A projection of costs, losses and waste
generated over the typical lifespan of a single
piece of equipment can be dramatic.
JOE STOUT, KRAFT FOODS, INC

(a step involveing FDA and in many
cases required 100% disassembly and
cleaning down to nuts and bolts);
vendor support for supplies, equipment and contracted services; and establishing sanitation verification and
validation with internal departments
and regulatory agencies. Costs of restoration (downtime, utility resources, personnel, contracted services
and others) for ConAgra surpassed
$33 million. This does not include
the impact from loss of loyalty and
time to restore consumer confidence.
Many smaller companies succumbed
and were forced out of business.
LIFE CYCLE IMPACT. Mr. Stout
brought his message home when he
analyzed the life cycle of a generic
piece of equipment in one plant. Assuming the equipment has a useful life
of 20 years (which can vary between
10 and more than 50 years), the personnel, downtime and loss of product
revenue because of cleaning and sanitation is astounding (see "Life Cycle
for Equipment," on this page). "Consider the changes in equipment design
in the past 20 years," he said. "Now
imagine the next 20 years. Realizing
the speed of technology advancement
relating to food safety, we need to be
sure equipment design keeps pace."

An emphasis throughout the workshop was the importance of getting
everyone involved in equipment procurement from the outset, including
production, engineering, sanitation
and other departments, vendors and
outside parties to discuss concept and
design requirements.
Sanitary standards such as BISSC
and NSF were also discussed for their
validity, necessity and cost impact.
While processors agreed a minimum
standard should be met by all suppliers, the vendors noted the wide range
of applications and custom engineering required and the challenge of applying a single standard equally to all
equipment, considering added costs
incurred by suppliers and lack of

mandates from all processors for such
standards. Attendees also noted that
standards for sanitation are continually evolving. By the time the industry
settles on a single standard, it is already outdated. The 10 principles were
considered more applicable over time
and to a wider selection of equipment.
PRINCIPLE CHECKLIST. Mr. Stout
and the other processors of the working group not only created the 10
guiding principles stated earlier but
also provided details for each principle, which generated healthy dialogue
and appreciation of the issues among
the attendees. "'Cleanable' may sound
like a basic concept, but processors
need equipment to be cleanable to

March 2010 / BAKING & SNACK

Baking & Snack - March 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Baking & Snack - March 2010