The first in a planned series of specialist industry seminars has been hosted by Thorite. The event was held in the company’s new Training Academy in Bradford and designed for invited food and beverage industry production personnel, providing essential knowledge on the most efficient production and maintenance of food grade compressed air.
Compressed air is widely used to power the processing machinery of food and beverage manufacturers and it is obviously vital to ensure that there is no contamination from the compressed air system during the production, processing, handling and packaging stages of the food chain, from source to consumer. Contaminants include solid particles of dirt, water (as humidity) and oil, with microbiological contaminants also being a potential risk.
The Thorite seminar covered five main subjects, each playing an important role in minimising contaminant risk. These included how to deliver the most cost effective compressed air system, how to achieve national, international and customer quality standards, how to understand current legislation, how to meet this legislation and an overview of the Health and Safety requirements that apply to the food and beverage industry.
Also discussed was current legislation and how it relates to compressed air plus food safety relative to compressed air including the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point process (HACCP), Pre-Requisite Programs (PRPs), Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and Food Safety Management Systems. The event concluded by explaining the British Compressed Air Society Code of Practice for Food and Beverage and specified the ideal selection of the compressors and ancillary equipment necessary to produce food grade compressed air.
The seminar was attended by a mixture of engineering, production and facilities management personnel from a range of producers including soft drinks, coffee, frozen foods and continental beverages and the 2½ hour event rounded off with a (contaminant-free!) buffet lunch. Further seminars are already in the pipeline, aimed at different industries, which will focus on energy savings and the design and modification of control elements in compressed air systems.
