By Bjarne Darré, Director Sales, GEA Liquid Processing, EHEDG member and chairman of Stålcentrum
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!