Choosing Conveyor Belts for Food Safety

Running a food processing plant is not an easy task, not least because of the complexities of dealing with food safety and hygiene. This makes choosing the right conveyor belt to use in food processing applications a crucial task. 

While food plant managers do a good job of keeping their facilities clean, food debris and microbes can still find their way into the smallest of dead spots. Bacteria can harbor on and in conveyor frames, under equipment, under the belt, or even in the small gaps of a plastic modular belt. What’s more, they can elude even the most rigorous cleaning cycles, leading to excessive use of detergent, water, time and energy.

Anna Marcol, marketing communications manager at conveyor and power transmission belt specialist Habasit, shared insights from a recent webinar delivered jointly by experts from Habasit and NGI, who discussed how hygiene-rated equipment and the right choice of belt type and material, are crucial in achieving food safety.

“When thinking about food safety and hygiene, food processing professionals should consider two key areas: hygiene-rated equipment and the right choice of food-contact elements, including belt type and material,” Marcol explains.

Hygienic Approach

In open conveyor systems, food debris can contaminate surfaces and get into crevices and internal support structures over time. While effective cleaning and sanitation plans reduce contamination, equipment and components designed specifically for hygiene can take less time, water and cleaning agents to clean and sanitize.

Therefore, equipment and components should be appropriately hygiene certified for food. This includes meeting minimum hygiene standards in accordance with industry guidelines such as 3-A, NSF or EHEDG, as well as being compliant with the food contact regulations by the FDA or EU 1935/2004, and other national regulations.

Hygiene certified components consider, among other factors, the cleanability of surfaces, preventing ingress and the growth of microbes in dead spaces, self-draining surfaces or on levelling-feet or castors and much more. However, these measures are only a means to an end. 

Habasit’s Hygiene Program Manager, Bernd Roser recently delivered a webinar on food safety jointly with Niels Vindsmark, Sales and Brand Owner Program Manager at hygienic component manufacturer NGI.

In the webinar Niels explained, “Applying hygienic certified components will not avoid an outbreak, but the more problems you can eliminate and the more certified hygienic components you have in your production facility, the less places you have to look at and worry about if you have an outbreak.”

You can read the rest of this article in the Summer Issue of Asia Pacific Baker & Biscuit magazine, which you can access by clicking here.