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This information can be used to develop food safety and quality programs that meet the requirements of modern Regulatory, Customer and Industry Standards:
Equipment: Machinery, apparatus, components, and any other articles intended for use in a food business.
When considering the development, documentation, and implementation of Equipment Design and Construction Standards within food safety and quality management systems, the following information should be considered to ensure effective outcomes:
Equipment used within the food sector must be suitably constructed and maintained to ensure it doesn’t contribute to the production of unsafe foods. General requirements for Food Equipment include:
When choosing a piece of equipment for use within the Food Sector, the following Specification, Commissioning and Validation elements should be considered (and recorded) to achieve ‘best practice’ outcomes for all new, existing, or refurbished equipment items.
The Specification, Commissioning, and Validation of equipment for the food sector should be conducted and recorded to cover:
The Specification, Commissioning, and Validation of equipment for the food sector should be conducted by a multidisciplinary team to ensure the highest level of outcomes.
In many cases, new, existing, or refurbished equipment may require the adoption of risk reduction strategies to reduce the risk of such equipment contributing to the production of unsafe foods.
For example, if a piece of equipment were to include hard plastic fixtures or fittings that could be replaced with another material such as stainless steel, this would be of benefit by removing such hazardous plastic risk. Similarly, if hard plastic fixtures or fittings were required for the safe operation of such equipment, the hard plastic fixtures or fittings could be protected by stainless steel guarding or framing to significantly reduce the risk of breakage.
Where equipment meets the Premises, for example at a through wall fixture where a conveyor belt transits from a Low Risk to a High Risk or High Care area, such equipment should be positioned and/or moveable to facilitate required Cleaning and Sanitation Tasks.
Similarly, where Equipment can’t be positioned and/or moveable within its position, it should be appropriately sealed and maintained to prevent the buildup of food residue. In this case, sealings between the premises and the equipment should be to the same standard as for the general premises.
Equipment maintenance should be facilitated as part of a proactive Preventative and Reactive Maintenance Program.
You may wish to visit the Preventative Maintenance and Reactive Maintenance section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
All equipment associated with food production must be appropriately constructed and maintained with food safety as the primary concern. The installation and use of such equipment also need to be addressed as food safety can be compromised through an improper application. Important equipment requirements include documentation and record-keeping, monitoring equipment for maintenance requirements, including the targeting of heavily worn or corroded areas, incomplete construction or cracks and pitting, cleanliness and calibration, staff training in the use of specific equipment, design of equipment for the intended purpose, and effective cleaning and sanitizing.
Equipment, utensils, and containers other than single-use containers and packaging coming into contact with food should be designed and constructed to ensure that they can be effectively cleaned and sanitized, and maintained to avoid the contamination of food. Equipment and containers should be made of materials with no toxic effect within the scope of their intended use. Utensils, equipment, and containers should be durable and movable or capable of being disassembled to allow for maintenance, cleaning, disinfection, monitoring, and, for example, to facilitate inspection for pests.
Working surfaces that come into direct contact with food should be in sound condition, durable, and easy to clean, maintain and sanitize. Working surfaces should be made of smooth, non-absorbent materials, and inert to the food, detergents, and disinfectants under normal operating conditions.
Where a facility processes both raw and cooked food products, segregation of raw and cooking equipment is considered the best practice to prevent equipment-related cross-contamination. Where equipment is unavoidably used for both cooked and raw foods it must be cleaned and sanitized correctly before swapping for use between the two.
Equipment should be located so that it:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Equipment Design and Construction Standards Development requirements in relation to their items.
Document: A document provides guidance and/or direction for performing work, making decisions, or rendering judgments that affect the safety or quality of the products or services that customers receive.
Documented policies, procedures, work instructions, and schedules form the basis of any food safety and quality management system. The following documentation formats may be considered to ensure ongoing compliance with specified requirements for Equipment Design and Construction Standards:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Equipment Design and Construction Standards Documentation requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Equipment Design and Construction Standards Templates section of haccp.com for examples of Equipment Design and Construction Standards documentation, record, and resource formats commonly applied within food safety and quality systems.
Implementation: Implementation is the application of documented food safety and quality system elements into the actual business operation.
The implementation of Equipment Design and Construction Standards within any food business requires genuine commitment from senior management, staff, and visitors to ensure the nominated goals of implementation are achievable on an ongoing basis. It is a step that requires significant planning and consideration of general and specific food business circumstances to ensure the outcomes of Equipment Design and Construction Standards do not negatively impact the safety and quality of the food items dispatched from the business.
Implementation of Equipment Design and Construction Standards must include a clear definition of responsibilities and authorities for all levels of participation by senior management, staff, and visitors to the site.
When implementing Equipment Design and Construction Standards within a food safety and quality system, you may wish to consider the following requirements before completion:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Equipment Design and Construction Standards Implementation requirements in relation to their items.
Monitoring: Monitoring is the act of reviewing and confirming measurable parameters of a defined process or product status.
Monitoring requirements within food industry sectors are generally identified against limits of acceptability defined within HACCP plans, implementation procedures, and work instructions. Monitoring usually includes some element of record-keeping, which may be maintained manually or through digital systems. It is important to consider that advancements in technology have spawned many systems and processes which are self-monitored and or self-adjusted when variances are identified. Regardless of the system used; The goal of any monitoring activity is to provide sufficient evidence that any limit of acceptability has been met.
Traditional Equipment Design and Construction Standards monitoring requirements include manual recording and the application of corrective actions when the results of monitoring are found to be outside acceptable limits. Corrective Actions should also generally be strongly linked to the monitoring process where applied to ensure full traceability of the applied actions.
Common monitoring activities and record formats may apply to Equipment Design and Construction Standards:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Equipment Design and Construction Standards Monitoring requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Equipment Design and Construction Standards Templates section of haccp.com for examples of Equipment Design and Construction Standards documentation, record, and resource formats commonly applied within food safety and quality systems.
Corrective Action: Corrective action is mandatory action to be taken when a deviation to the Quality System occurs, particularly with a Critical Control Point.
Preventative Action: At any step in the process where a hazard has been identified, preventative action must be put into place to prevent re-occurrence.
Corrective Action and Preventative Action are implemented to ensure that any identified non-conformance issues are documented, investigated, and rectified within appropriate time frames. Corrective action is any action applied to regain control over a product, process, policy, or procedure that has been identified as being non-conforming outside nominated limits of acceptability. Preventative action is any action applied to prevent any identified non-conformance from reoccurring.
The outcomes of corrective and preventative actions should result in regained process control after effective application. Specified corrective actions are commonly linked to the HACCP Plans and the food business certification process.
Below are Corrective Action and Preventative Action examples which may be associated with Equipment Design and Construction Standards related non-conformance:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Equipment Design and Construction Standards Corrective Action requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Corrective Action and Preventative Action section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
Verification: The act of reviewing, inspecting, testing, checking, auditing, or otherwise establishing and documenting whether items, processes, services, or documents conform to specified requirements.
Verification is the detailed review of all food safety and quality system elements to confirm that they are effectively developed, documented, implemented, monitored, and reviewed. All food safety and quality system elements, including documented policies, procedures, training, HACCP plans, and their operational applications must be verified on an ongoing scheduled basis. The verification process commonly includes a defined schedule for which verification activities are required, how often they are conducted, who is responsible, and detailed documented procedures for each nominated verification activity.
The general goal of an established verification process is to ensure any systemic non-conformance issues are identified and rectified within an appropriate time frame. When non-conformance issues are identified through the verification process, Corrective Actions and Preventative Actions should be implemented to ensure they do not impact the effectiveness of the food safety and quality system.
The following examples of verification activities may apply to Equipment Design and Construction Standards:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Equipment Design and Construction Standards Verification requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Verification Activities section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
Validation: The process of gathering evidence to provide a scientific basis for the documented act of demonstrating that a procedure, process, and activity will consistently lead to the expected results. It often includes the qualification of systems and equipment.
Validation is the provision of evidence to support the limits of control or acceptability for food safety or quality parameters nominated within systemic elements. Limits of control or acceptability are commonly included within documented food safety and quality systems elements such as procedures, HACCP plans, and specifications.
Common sources of validation include regulatory and legislative standards, finished product specifications and customer requirements, industry codes of practice and guidelines, verified and validated research, historical product, and process control outcomes, and analytical testing.
The general goal of an established validation process is to ensure any systemic non-conformance issues are identified and rectified within an appropriate time frame. When non-conformance issues are identified through the verification process, Corrective Actions and Preventative Actions should be implemented to ensure they do not impact the effectiveness of the food safety and quality system.
Validation activities are commonly defined within the verification schedules and procedures of established food safety and quality management systems.
The following examples may apply to validation of the limits of control or acceptability for Equipment Design and Construction Standards:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Equipment Design and Construction Standards Validation requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Validation Activities section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
Skills and Knowledge: Skills and knowledge are attributes of human interactions commonly linked to competency within any specified job-related task.
Training and competency requirements for Equipment Design and Construction Standards must be ongoing, including regularly scheduled reviews to ensure the effectiveness of training and competency outcomes.
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Equipment Design and Construction Standards should have a knowledge including:
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Equipment Design and Construction Standards should have skills including:
Team members who have defined responsibilities regarding Equipment Design and Construction Standards should have access to resources including:
If your food business supplies foodstuffs manufactured to a customer’s specifications, it is important to consider any specific Equipment Design and Construction Standards Training, Competency, and Resources requirements in relation to their items.
You may wish to visit the Training, Competency, and Resources section of haccp.com for examples of best practice applications for this food safety and quality system element.
haccp.com was created to support food businesses and food industry professionals in achieving and maintaining the stringent requirements of food industry compliance.