Lesson 6 - Hygienic Design

Hygienic design, at its core, consists of three factors. These are materials, equipment, and installation. If any of these does not meet hygienic standards, the entire facility is compromised.

It is similar to baking a cake: we must have the best ingredients (materials), follow the recipe (installation) and use an oven that can reach the proper temperature (equipment) to ensure success.

Hygienic design requires that the following is adhered to:

• Ease of equipment cleanability.

• Prevent ingress of micro-organisms and pests.

• Prevention of contamination from foreign particles such as dirt, broken off pieces of equipment, metal filings or anything else which may be lurking in the facility.

• Prevention from chemical contamination either from residual cleaning chemicals not adequately flushed from equipment or leaked into product lines.

• Compatibility with other requirements (such as safety standards or laws).

Contact surfaces

We need to make one more important distinction: that of a contact surface versus a non-contact surface.

A contact surface is any surface which may either directly or indirectly make contact with the product, or from which anything may be drawn back into the product. This includes the packaging material.

A contact surface must:

• Not react with the product

• Not react with detergents or disinfectants

• Be resistant to corrosion

• Be non-toxic

• Be non-tainting

• Be mechanically stable

• Contain no crack or crevice of any type

• Be nonporous and non-absorbent

• Be extremely durable

You may have surfaces in your brewery that are covered, e.g. tanks that are lined. This covering material must still meet these standards.

You should never see any flaking, bubbling, chipping or any type of distortion. Any modifications used during fabrication – like welding or soldering – should use appropriate materials and produce a surface meeting sanitary and hygienic design principles.

Non-contact surfaces

Non-contact surfaces are not in contact with the product. They can be in the form of the building, ancillary equipment and supports for equipment.

The importance of having your process in a clean environment should not be overlooked. In this lesson, we are not going into the detail of clean-room design for aseptic filling, as this will be covered in detail in the Diploma in Packaging.

Let us have a look at the requirements for a non-contact surface.

What do you think are the key requirements for making a brewery easy to clean? Give yourself 5-10 minutes to think about this, and then click ’Next’ to continue with this lesson.