HYGIENIC ENGINEERING & DESIGN NEWS
EHEDG CONTRIBUTES TO GLOBAL FOOD SAFETY INITIATIVE HYGIENIC ENGINEERING AND DESIGN IN BROAD FOOD SAFETY CONTEXT In November 2017, the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) sent out a call for participation in the GFSI Working Group for Hygienic Design of Food Facilities and Equipment. The objective was to define hygienic design benchmarking requirements for the GFSI recognized food safety certification programs covering food processing equipment and food processing/ handling facilities. This Working Group has now been established, and it incorporates a significant body of EHEDG expertise. This is what the selected team members of the GFSI Working Group Hygienic Design of Food Facilities and Equipment are working on: • Define benchmarking requirements for design, installation, engineering and (preventative) maintenance to benchmark Certificate Programme Owners (CPO’s). • Develop criteria that are suitable to be included in the GFSI Benchmarking Requirements. • Include references to relevant recognized industry standards regarding hygienic design. • Provide a basis that, in conjunction with the other elements of the GFSI Benchmarking Requirements, could be used for equipment manufacturing certification. • Develop a proposal on how to handle connections with existing benchmarking requirements. • Recommend relevant definitions to be included in the GFSI Benchmarking Requirements glossary.
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Growing awareness Alongside the call for participation, GFSI issued a statement illustrating the growing awareness that hygienic engineering and design is vital to optimize food safety: “Correct design of food handling and processing equipment and food manufacturing facilities are more important than ever before. As we move forward with the implementation of food safety programmes, we also need to give more scrutiny to the hygienic design of facilities and equipment for the entire food supply chain. In most regulatory and industry food safety programmes, this is momentarily addressed in a general manner. However, the terms used are only broadly defined, and interpretation of acceptability is left to the individual auditor and their particular aptitude for equipment evaluation. GFSI, powered by The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), is uniquely positioned to bring the key stakeholders together to address this issue collectively.”
