Introduction hygienic design guidelines for the fresh food industry

The technological service providers TOP bv from the Netherlands and Campden BRI from the UK, present new guidelines for hygienic design for the fresh food industry on October 23. These guidelines are intended to give processors of fresh food such as fruit, vegetables, meat and fish and machine constructors the tools to design machines and production areas in a better hygienic way. This reduces the risk of serious food safety hazards.

TOP bv and Campden BRI see a need for these guidelines as the food safety risks in the fresh produce processing industry are significant. Many problems can however be prevented with proper hygienic design. The new guidelines will be presented at the first international seminar on hygienic design on October 23 in Arnhem, the Netherlands.

“Guidelines for hygienic design, such as EHEDG, do exist but they are often inadequate or not applicable for the fresh food industry." Says Wouter de Heij, director of TOP bv. At companies that work with fresh products the food safety risks, such as salmonella, are significantly higher. This can be a danger to public health. De Heij: "With these new guidelines, the fresh food industry can make a better assessment of what is and is not safe before the purchase of machinery and the establishment of a factory." The guidelines have been developed in the EU project SUSCLEAN.

The combination of expertise in the field of microbiology, food technology and engineering is necessary for hygienic design. TOP bv and Campden BRI have this knowledge and want this to implement internationally in a practical way. Therefore they organize on October 23, the first international seminar on hygienic design for the fresh food industry. The seminar is held in parallel with the Food Valley Expo and will take place at the same location making the two events easy to combine. The full program of the seminar can be found at www.toptechnologytalks.nl/events