Beko Technologies is offering advice to help companies check for issues with compliance to health and hygiene regulations, particularly in relation to the role of compressed air in food and beverage production, in advance of audits.
Although compressed air plays a key role in food and beverage production, the company says, its impact on food safety is often underestimated. Tough regulatory requirements to ensure health and hygiene standards in food processing and production are one key consideration; the other is the market clout of the major retail chains. They carry out regular audits of their food and beverage suppliers to check compliance.
Contaminated compressed air in the food chain is one of the ways the safety of a food or beverage may be compromised during production, processing, handling, packaging or transporting. The most common contaminants are dirt, water and oil, though microbiological organisms may also be a source of contamination in a compressed air system. If compressed air comes into direct contact with the food or beverage, Beko says a much higher standard of contaminant control is required. When food retailers send auditors to check health and hygiene standards at a food site, the quality of the compressed that comes into direct or indirect contact with the products could well be checked.
“To manage food safety you have to measure,” said Matthew Harrison, Beko’s Sales Manager UK & Ireland. “Customers come to us for our expertise in compressed air technology and because we’re known for our excellent technical background.” It’s only in the past two decades, Matthew added, that standards such as ISO 8573 or the Code of Practice issued by the British Compressed Air Society have become the norm. “That’s probably one of the reasons why we still see food sites with very basic compressed air equipment – and correspondingly low standards.”
“Because every food site is different,” says Paul Mucklow, Beko’s Product Support Manager, “we always supply a customer with a one-off, site-specific solution.” The necessary investment in the equipment to generate dry, dust-free and oil-free compressed air to meet strict food safety requirement may not be cheap, but the loss of a key contract to supply a major retail chain would be a lot more expensive.
Beko trains its product support staff through its own online training programme, British Compressed Air Society courses and advanced training at the parent company in Germany. “Many food manufacturers admit they don’t know enough about compressed air,” Matthew said. “So they come to us looking to safeguard their contracts with retailers. Our expertise can give them peace of mind.”
