Yearbook 2013/2014 - ehedg

EHEDG Subgroups 165
design, selection, installation, and operation of air handling
systems with regard to hygienic requirements. Information
is provided on the role of air systems in maintaining and
achieving microbiological standards in food products. The
guidelines cover the choice of systems, filtration types,
system concepts, construction, maintenance, sanitation,
testing, commissioning, validation and system monitoring.
Compared to the previous version, the scope in the ongoing
revision, has been narrowed and focused on air handling
systems used for building ventilation and to make up
atmospheric pressure process supply air. Supply systems for
pressurized air and exhaust air systems such as grease filter
systems or dust removal units are excluded from the scope
of the document. These systems are significantly different
from the air handling systems dealt with in this document
and require their own Guidelines.
Chairman:
Dr. Thomas Caesar
Freudenberg Filtration Technologies SE & Co. KG
69465 Weinheim
Germany
Phone: +49 (6201) 80-2596
Fax: +49 (6201) 88-2596
E-mail: thomas.caesar@freudenberg-filter.com
EHEDG Subgroup “Hygienic Building Design”
Dr. John Holah, e-mail: j.holah@campden.co.uk
With its inaugural meeting on 4th October 2011, the Building
Design Subgroup is tasked with providing guidelines on
all aspects of construction detail relating to the hygienic
design of food factories – a significant challenge given
the complexity and diversity of operations in a global field.
Some 18 participants attended the first meeting – a healthy
cross section of producers, consultants, contractors and
building product manufacturers ensured productive debate.
Whilst comprehensive design guidelines exist at an
individual food manufacturer or organisation level there are
no public documents. This situation may give rise to different
specifications from food producers with the potential to
cause conflict for building suppliers in their ability to meet
all requirements. It was accepted that a common reference
would be extremely valuable to the industry.
A focus was decided on food processing operations with
the remit covering detailed hygienic design in wet and dry
factories. Furthermore the guidance should acknowledge
EU legislation and the Global Food Safety Initiative. It was
envisaged that the document would consist of text but be
rich in illustrations, ideally showing both ‘good’ and ‘bad’
examples.
Given the complex nature of building design and construction
the group decided to define what should be included in terms
of hygienic requirements. Agreement was made on the
following aspects:
• Defence against external hazards
• Defence against internal hazards –
• Internal flows to prevent cross-contamination
• Security against deliberate contamination
• Maintaining hygienic conditions via structure rigidity
• Maintaining hygienic conditions via material
durability
• Compliance with customer/GFSI best practice
A separate working group was set up for floors, drains,
kerbs and doors – coordinated by Martin Fairley of ACO.
Work groups like this present a fantastic opportunity to
pull together experience and expertise from a variety
of perspectives to the benefit of the industry as a
whole; however there can clearly be cases for conflict
between competing technologies or between competing