7 replies to this topic

[irheavyd]

We have conduits that are not in a ceiling void.  They are attached to walls and ceilings.  Are we required to put them into walls and ceilings?  Do we have to build some type of containment for them?  Any advice would be great.

[SQFconsultant]

This is not an issue, they just need to be maintained.

[Setanta]

Agree, they need to be clean, just like your walls and ceilings, but they do not HAVE to be contained.

[jfrey123]

Yep, agreed you can have them out.  If they're way overhead, add them to a sanitation schedule.  if they're reachable on the walls near where you're performing sanitation, call them out in your procedures for those areas.  My SQF auditors have never had an issue with exposed conduits, but they do love to point to them and ask how often they get cleaned and what records can prove it.

 

You'll also need to make sure conduits are addressed in your sanitary installation guideline SOP for the facility.  Program should instruct maintenance how to install conduits, designing them in such a way that they can be cleaned easily and don't support harborage points.  As an example, unistrut type brackets are pretty notorious for being installed in such a direction that they create a box that holds dust and debris.  Auditors also love to find junction boxes to see if all the unused plugs are intact.

Edited by jfrey123, 03 July 2024 - 01:19 PM.

[irheavyd]

Awesome ty

[irheavyd]

Yep, agreed you can have them out.  If they're way overhead, add them to a sanitation schedule.  if they're reachable on the walls near where you're performing sanitation, call them out in your procedures for those areas.  My SQF auditors have never had an issue with exposed conduits, but they do love to point to them and ask how often they get cleaned and what records can prove it.

 

You'll also need to make sure conduits are addressed in your sanitary installation guideline SOP for the facility.  Program should instruct maintenance how to install conduits, designing them in such a way that they can be cleaned easily and don't support harborage points.  As an example, unistrut type brackets are pretty notorious for being installed in such a direction that they create a box that holds dust and debris.  Auditors also love to find junction boxes to see if all the unused plugs are intact.

 

 

Can you elaborate a bit on this sanitary installation guideline SOP? 

[jfrey123]

Can you elaborate a bit on this sanitary installation guideline SOP? 

 

We had an SOP that detailed how things should be constructed when making alterations to the plant.  It detailed basically how to avoid creating boxed in spaces that can't be cleaned, hard right angles on installed items that accumulate dust/debris, so on and so forth.  It outlined using bolts instead of screws so the heads didn't enable harborage.  It called for installing channel strut/superstrut on ceilings so the open side was always facing down (preventing harborage in the void within if the open side is facing straight up).  It came from a consultant I worked with at the time and had a bunch of diagrams like the one below. 

 

You can really go down a rabbit hole with this, lots of details from the meat and dairy industries in various publications.  There's even a fair amount of white papers detailing some of the ideas.

 

[irheavyd]

Wow.  Awesome info thanks