How to validate sieving process?
hello, can you please advise how to validate sieving process? should I on purpose add some foreign material and check if it will be left on the sieve? in my opinion it is like atr ofr art's sake - it is obvious that sieve is working
Anna
We use sieves and mesh filters in our processes. We validate their effectiveness by frequent inspections / cleaning of the sieves and inspection of the finished product (clarity vs cloudiness).
I wouldn't add matter into my product in the hopes it'll be retained by the sieve, that's really close to intentionally contaminating your product.
If you still want to validate the effectiveness of your sieves that way, maybe you could add the foreign matter during a cleaning process like a CIP or a rinsing step as long as your testing material is sterile, made of inert material, non porous, non soluble in the conditions of the process, can be detected or removed in a following step, etc.
Hi Anna,
Is the sieving a new measure, or are you just needing to validate it now? I think customer complaints would be a good indicator of the effectiveness of the sieve.
Hello Anna, what's the product/ingredient going through the sieves?
Thank you for advice. I think sieve inspection is rather verification activity - not validation. We perform sieve checking (integrity and remainings on it for every sieved product batch).
I think comleints and audits results can be used in validation process as HACCP system annual review.
We sieve powders - dry blending.
I meant sieving validation that is part of food safety plan that is FDA FSMA requirement - please fing the example.
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Yes, you run an experiment to see what percentage of foreign objects you run through the sieve are captured. You could run 100 (or more) metal objects of the correct sizes (the hazard size range) with some product and try to recover them out the other side with a magnet or metal detector. Or just count them, I suppose.
Additionally, you need to demonstrate that the sieve can hold up to the rigors of its job without breaking and introducing foreign objects into the product. I would use the manufacturer's specifications and the scholarly literature to show that the maximum load ever experienced by the sieve is much lower than its rated load.