What distance should food or conveyor be off the floor?
Is anyone aware of a regulation or industry standard for the distance food and/or equipment carrying food (i.e. conveyor belt) should be off the floor?
Is anyone aware of a regulation or industry standard for the distance food and/or equipment carrying food (i.e. conveyor belt) should be off the floor?
Hi mwedel,
Regulatory numbers are elusive, eg FDA –
We recommend that to prevent contamination of RF-RTE foods and food-contact surfaces from floor splash, you should sufficiently elevate food-contact surfaces (including conveyors) above the floor.
http://www.fda.gov/F...P/ucm073110.htm
(LINK now > general search page, added Charles.C,161020)
Mettler’s Guideline -
Product contact areas are 18” above the floor minimum floor clearance of 12” - prevents splash and makes clean out easier.
mettler - White Paper Sanitary Design.pdf 984KB 122 downloads
i guess it may depend somewhat on the specific situation.
General rule is at least 6 inches from the floor to allow access for cleaning. May need to be higher if there is overflow water, etc., that reduce the 6 inch separation and pose rsik of contamination.
Imholte publishes a good book on food plant design.
Here are some links to published standards.
Unversity of Florida IFAS Extension Service:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.../FS/FS11900.pdf
USDA Guidelines for Sanitary Design:
http://www.ams.usda....STELPRDC5048589
(LINK now > general search page, added Charles.C,161020)
Hi FSQCBiz,
Thks for the links.
IMEX, the problem with conveyors is that (rightly or wrongly) they are frequently semi-exposed to the floor, cf. the example on Pg6 of Florida link.
I cannot see any numerical suggestion for food-contact surfaces in above documents in respect to contamination from the floor. (similar problem to which i previously experienced :smile: ).
It seemed to me that the 6in.(G1a) mentioned in 2nd link is unrelated ?
To add to the previous posts the design of the conveyor is a consideration such as if it prevents contamination from splashes from the floor.
Regards,
Tony