Joanie Spencer, editor-in-chief of Commercial Baking, talks with Tony Maniscalco, business unit leader at SideDrive Conveyor Co. In this TechTalk, they discuss the importance of sanitary design in product conveyor systems.
Joanie: Sanitary design has been a huge priority for commercial bakers over the last five or ten years in this era of physma. How have you seen it impact your customers' needs for hygienic conveyor systems?
Tony: Sure, that's a good question. The plants must have a food safety plan for hazard analysis and preventive controls. Currently the FSMA focuses on the prevention of foodborne illness rather than being reactive to the issues that come up. The impact in the baking industry is related to the rules of the process control that would target food allergens to eliminate cross contact and also sanitation controls. With that said, the prevention aspect of the FSMA can be the guidance to the decision of the conveying system to properly transfer the product to (1) avoid catch points that create damage or spillage of the product (2) to ensure the sanitation process is effective to remove allergens and contaminates. These rules established the conditions to minimize and prevent hazardous of the environmental pathogens.
Tony: Sure, the benefits are that they are made of a USDA compliant plastic material. We use compliant material for the wear strip. It’s a smooth one piece excursion that supports the intralox 2700 series belt. It’s the only belt we use for the system. The connection to the frame is with a special lock mechanism, this unique design eliminates harborage points compared to traditional snap-on wear strips. Specifically the system was designed for heavy high pressure washdown environments that can withstand exposure to typical chemicals used during the sanitation process.
Joanie: Okay, so sometimes I think bakers might only think of the belting when they are considering hygienic conveyor design because it's the touch point for the product. Why are sanitary frame and sprocket design important when you are thinking about the conveyor system too?
Joanie: So you mentioned USDA a couple of times, and that reminds me that the sanitary design in the baking industry has taken a lot of cues from the meat industry. Can you tell me what some of the latest developments are with USDA approved conveyance equipment and how that's impacting SideDrive’s design?
Joanie: Yeah, food safety is one issue that we are not going backwards. It's not going away and it's not going to be less important. It’s only going to continue to become more and more important don’t you think?
Tony: Yeah, absolutely. One of the things we continue to hear about is really about the versatility, the flexibility and the sanitation processes. They continue to look for improvements but what's next and what's best, what is coming around the corner to really look at how we are going to protect the environment and the conditions. So everything is about food safety and anything that comes in-contact with it.
Joanie: Tony, what is the best way for a baker to get in touch and learn about these technologies and how they can incorporate them into their operation?
Tony: Well obviously they can go to our website, www.sidedriveconveyor.com where we have a series of downloads, videos and podcasts. They can simply call us at 267-203-8355. We are also on social media like Linkedin, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter and we have upcoming trade shows as wel, you can visit our site in the booth and go from there.