Best practice guide to food process automation

Citation

(2001), "Best practice guide to food process automation", Assembly Automation, Vol. 21 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.2001.03321aad.003

Best practice guide to food process automation

Best practice guide to food process automation

Keywords: Food, Automation

Automation specialist Festo Ltd has published a definitive guide to automation theory and best practise in food and hygiene-sensitive environments. The new handbook is aimed expressly at machinery designers and users in food processing and packaging industries, and presents valuable information in an easy-to-use reference format.

Content for the handbook is distilled from the heart on Festo's extensive engineering knowledge-base and design experience in the automation of food production machinery, with additional input from specialised manufacturers and suppliers. Subjects addressed include Standards, EU directives and good practise governing design for hygiene. In addition, the guide details materials and automation components appropriate for use in these environments.

As well as consumer pressure driving the targets for high standards in food processing, there are many EU directives that can apply to food safety for manufacturers of machinery. Festo research shows that even among the company's own customers, interpretations of these directives are unclear as official documentation rarely refers to practical examples.

In contrast, the Festo handbook uses application examples to introduce systems such as hazard analysis critical control point (HACPP) and pertinent US-based legislation, including FDA and the 3-A standards applicable to specific dairy and ice-cream plant (see Plate 3).

Plate 3 The Festo handbook includes FDA and 3-A standards applicable to specific dairy and ice-cream plant

The guide highlights the often opposing cornerstones of food safety hygienic, reliable production processes combined with easy-to-clean machine design – and defines products from Festo, leading machinery manufacturers and specialised suppliers to make the handbook an indispensable aid to food machinery designers. For a free copy of the Festo's Handbook for Food & Packaging – Theory and Practice, contact Steve Sands or Iain Burgess, Festo Ltd, Automation House, Harvest Crescent, Ancells Business Park, Fleet, Hampshire GU13 8XP, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1252 775000; Fax: +44 (0)1252 775002; E-mail: Iain_Burgess@Festo.com