Tips for Small Food & Beverage Producers

from becoming contaminated during processing. The two main sources of contamination are 1) insects and animals and 2) microorganisms. Insects and animals are attracted to food buildings if foods or wastes are left lying round after production has finished. Microorganisms can grow in food residues that are left on equipment, tables or floors which have not been properly cleaned. Microorganisms require water to grow and wet processing therefore has an inherently greater risk of contamination than dry processing does. However, some types of microorganism can form inert spores that are able to survive under dry conditions and then grow when they come into contact with water or foods and strict hygiene should also be enforced in drying operations. In dry processing there is an additional risk of contamination by dust, which can spoil foods itself and also harbor microorganisms. The following aspects of setting up a processing facility should therefore be addressed by entrepreneurs, whether they are constructing a new facility or converting an existing building.

In general, a building should have enough space for all production processes to take place without congestion and for storage of raw materials, packaging materials and finished products. However, the investment should be appropriate to the size and expected profitability of the enterprise to reduce startup capital, the size of any loans taken out and depreciation and maintenance charges.

In tropical climates, overhanging roofs keep direct sunlight off the walls and out of the building. This is particularly important when processing involves heating, to make working conditions more comfortable. Fibre-cement tiles offer greater insulation against heat from the sun than galvanised iron sheets do. High level vents in roofs both allow heat and steam to escape and encourage a flow of fresh air through the processing room. The vents must be screened with mesh to prevent insects, rodents and birds from entering the room. If heat is a serious problem, the entrepreneur could consider fitting electric fans or extractors, although this clearly increases capital and operating costs.

Rafters or roof beams within the processing and storage rooms are unacceptable. They allow dust to accumulate, which can fall off in lumps to cause gross contamination of products. Similarly, insects can fall from them into products. They also allow paths for rodents and birds, with consequent risks of contamination from hairs, feathers or excreta. It is therefore essential to have a paneled ceiling fitted to any processing or store-room, with careful attention when fitting them to ensure that there are no holes in the paneling. Care should also be taken to prevent birds, rodents and flying insects gaining access to the processing room through gaps in the roof structure or where the roof joins the walls.

As a minimum requirement, all internal walls should be rendered or plastered with a good quality plaster to prevent dust forming in the processing room. An experienced plasterer should be used to ensure that no cracks or ledges remain in the surface finish, which could accumulate dirt and insects. The lower area of walls, to at least 1.08 metres (four feet) above the floor, is most likely to get dirty from washing equipment, from product splashing etc. and special attention should be paid to ensure that this area is easily cleaned. Higher areas of walls should be painted with a good quality emulsion. The lower parts of walls should be either painted with a waterproof gloss paint, preferably white, to allow them to be thoroughly cleaned, or ideally they should be tiled with glazed tiles. If tiling a process room is too expensive, it is possible to select particular areas such as behind sinks or machinery and only tile these parts. In some countries there is a legal requirement for specified internal finishes and this should be checked with the Ministry of Health or other appropriate authority

Window sills should be made to slope for two reasons: to prevent dust from accumulating and to prevent operators from leaving cloths or other items lying there, which in turn can attract insects. Windows allow staff to work in natural daylight, which is preferable to and cheaper than electric lighting. However, in tropical climates there is a natural inclination for workers to open windows to allow greater circulation of fresh air. This provides easy access for flying insects, which can readily contaminate the product. Windows should therefore be fitted with mosquito mesh to allow them to be left open.

Normally doors should be kept closed, but if they are used regularly there is again a tendency for them to be left open with similar consequences of animals and insects entering the plant. In this case, thin metal chains or strips of material that are hung vertically from the door lintel may deter insects and some animals, while allowing easy access for staff. Alternatively mesh door screens can be used. Doors should be fitted accurately so that there are no gaps beneath them and all storeroom doors should be kept closed to prevent insects and rodents from destroying stock or ingredients.

It is essential to ensure that the floors of processing rooms and storerooms are constructed of good quality concrete, smooth finished and without cracks. In some developing countries, it is possible to buy proprietary floor paints or vinyl based coatings, but these are usually very expensive. Generally, it is not adequate to use the red wax floor polishes that are commonly found in households, as these wear away easily and could contaminate either products or packages. Over time, spillages of acidic fruit products react with concrete and cause it to erode. Attention should therefore be paid to cleaning up spillages as they occur and to regularly monitor the condition of the floor.

The comers where the floor and the walls join are places for dirt to collect. During construction of the floor, it should therefore be curved up to meet the wall. It is possible to place fillets of concrete (or 'coving') in the comers of an existing floor to fill up the right angle, but care is needed to ensure that new gaps are not created which would harbour dirt and insects.

The floor should slope at an angle of approximately 1 in 8 to a central drainage channel. At the end of a day's production, the floor can be thoroughly washed and drained. Proper drainage prevents pools of stagnant water forming, which would in turn risk contamination of equipment and foods. The drainage channel should be fitted with an easily removed steel grating so that the drain can be cleaned. Where the drain exits the building, there is a potential entry point for rodents and crawling insects unless wire mesh is fitted over the drain opening. This too should be easily removed for cleaning.

General room lighting should be minimised wherever possible. Full use should be made of natural daylight, which is both free and better quality light, especially for intricate work. Where additional lighting is needed, florescent tubes are cheaper to operate than incandescent bulbs. However, if machinery is used that has fast moving exposed parts, these should be lit with incandescent bulbs and not tubes. This is because even though the parts should have guards fitted, a rotating machine can appear to stand still if its speed matches the number of cycles of the mains electricity that powers fluorescent tubes - with obvious dangers to operators.

All electric power points should be placed at a sufficiently high level above the floor that there is no risk of water entering them during washing the floor or equipment. Ideally, waterproof sockets should be used. It is important to use each power point for one application and not use multiple sockets which risk overloading a circuit and causing a fire. If there are insufficient power points for the needs of a process, additional points should be installed, even though this is more expensive. All plugs should be fitted with fuses that are appropriate for the power rating of the equipment and ideally the mains supply should have an earth leakage trip switch. If three-phase power is needed for larger machines or for heavy loads from electric heating, it is important that the wiring is installed by a qualified electrician to balance the supply across the three phases.

Water is essential in nearly all fruit and vegetable processing, both as a component of products and for cleaning. An adequate supply of potable water should therefore be available from taps around the processing area. In many countries, the mains supply is unreliable or periodically contaminated and it is therefore necessary for the entrepreneur to make arrangements to secure a regular supply of good quality water each day. This can be done by installing two high level, covered storage tanks either in the roof-space or on pillars outside the building. They can be filled alternately when mains water is available and while one tank is being used, any sediment in water in the other tank is settling out. As sedimentation takes several hours, the capacity of each tank should be sufficient for one day's production. The tanks should have a sloping base and be fitted with drain valves above the slope and at the lowest point. In use, water is taken from the upper valve and when the tank is almost empty, the lower valve is opened to flush out any sediment that has accumulated.

Water that is included in a product should be carefully treated to remove all traces of sediment and if necessary, it should be sterilised. This is particularly important if the product is not heated after water has been mixed in as an ingredient.

There are four ways of treating water at a small scale: by filtration; by heating; by ultra-violet light and by chemical sterilants, such as hypochlorite (also named 'chlorine solution' or 'bleach'). Other water treatment methods are generally too expensive at a small scale of operation.

Filtration through domestic water filters is slow, but having made the capital expenditure, it is relatively cheap. Larger industrial filters are available in some countries. Heating water to boiling and holding it at that temperature for 10-15 minutes is simple and has low capital costs, but it is expensive because of fuel costs and it is time consuming to do routinely. Heating sterilises the water but does not remove sediment and boiled water may therefore require filtering or standing to remove sediment.

Ultra-violet light destroys micro-organisms in water and commercial water treatment units that use this principle are coming down in price to the point that they can be suitable for those small scale processors that use a lot of water. Again, this method does not remove sediment from the water.

Finally, chemical sterilisation using hypochlorite is fast, relatively cheap and effective against a wide range of micro-organisms. Cleaning water should contain about 200 ppm of chorine and water that is used as an ingredient should contain about 0.5 ppm to avoid giving a chlorine flavour to the product. A chlorine concentration of 200 ppm can be made by adding 1 litre of bleach to 250 litres of water and a 0.5 ppm solution is obtained by adding 2.5 ml of bleach to 250 litres of water. Although chlorine kills most micro-organisms, it also has a number of disadvantages: it can corrode aluminium equipment; it can taint foods; bleach must be handled with great care as it damages the necessary, the concentration of chlorine in water can be measured using a chemical dye that produces a colour when it reacts with chlorine. The intensity of the colour is compared to standard colours on glass discs in a 'comparator'.

Good sanitation is essential to reduce the risk of product contamination and to deter insects, rodent and birds. All wastes should be placed in bins and not piled on the floor. Processes should have a management system in place to remove wastes from the building as they are produced, rather than letting them accumulate during the day. Wastes should never be left in a processing room overnight.

Raw materials should move through a process and through the room without paths crossing. Different stages in a process should be physically separated wherever possible. This helps prevent contamination of finished products by incoming, often dirty, raw materials and clearly identifies areas of the room where special attention to hygiene is necessary. This is particularly important to prevent contamination arising from activities such as bottle washing in which inevitable breakages produce glass splinters that could contaminate a product. This separation also reduces the likelihood of accidents or of operators bumping into each other.

Perishable raw materials should be stored separately from non-perishable ingredients and packaging materials. A separate office allows records to be filed and kept clean and provides a quieter working environment for book-keeping. Toilets should either be housed in a separate building or two doors should exist between them and a processing area. All workers should have access to hand-washing facilities with soap and clean towels. Laboratory facilities are generally not needed in fruit and vegetable processing, although a separate table for conducting quality assurance checks or check-weighing packages of finished product could be located in the office or in a separate area of the processing room.


	Spads Inc. \| Back Introduction All fruit and vegetable processing operations require a hygienically designed and easily cleaned building to prevent products from becoming contaminated during processing. The two main sources of contamination are 1) insects and animals and 2) microorganisms. Insects and animals are attracted to food buildings if foods or wastes are left lying round after production has finished. Microorganisms can grow in food residues that are left on equipment, tables or floors which have not been properly cleaned. Microorganisms require water to grow and wet processing therefore has an inherently greater risk of contamination than dry processing does. However, some types of microorganism can form inert spores that are able to survive under dry conditions and then grow when they come into contact with water or foods and strict hygiene should also be enforced in drying operations. In dry processing there is an additional risk of contamination by dust, which can spoil foods itself and also harbor microorganisms. The following aspects of setting up a processing facility should therefore be addressed by entrepreneurs, whether they are constructing a new facility or converting an existing building. The site The location of a food building is very important and the following aspects need to be considered when choosing a site: · location in relation to raw material supplies and likely markets · ease of access for staff (public transport, distance down an access road) · quality of road access (all year, dry season only, potholes that may cause damage to products, especially when glass containers are used) · nearby swamp land that would be a source of smells and insects · any potential contamination of water supplies upstream of the processing site · available land for waste disposal away from the building · electricity supplies · cleared land to reduce problems caused by insects and birds (preferably planted with short grass, which acts as a dust trap for airborne dust). Design and construction of the building Roofs and ceilings Walls Windows and doors Floors Lighting and power Water supply and sanitation Layout of equipment and facilities In general, a building should have enough space for all production processes to take place without congestion and for storage of raw materials, packaging materials and finished products. However, the investment should be appropriate to the size and expected profitability of the enterprise to reduce startup capital, the size of any loans taken out and depreciation and maintenance charges. Roofs and ceilings In tropical climates, overhanging roofs keep direct sunlight off the walls and out of the building. This is particularly important when processing involves heating, to make working conditions more comfortable. Fibre-cement tiles offer greater insulation against heat from the sun than galvanised iron sheets do. High level vents in roofs both allow heat and steam to escape and encourage a flow of fresh air through the processing room. The vents must be screened with mesh to prevent insects, rodents and birds from entering the room. If heat is a serious problem, the entrepreneur could consider fitting electric fans or extractors, although this clearly increases capital and operating costs. Rafters or roof beams within the processing and storage rooms are unacceptable. They allow dust to accumulate, which can fall off in lumps to cause gross contamination of products. Similarly, insects can fall from them into products. They also allow paths for rodents and birds, with consequent risks of contamination from hairs, feathers or excreta. It is therefore essential to have a paneled ceiling fitted to any processing or store-room, with careful attention when fitting them to ensure that there are no holes in the paneling. Care should also be taken to prevent birds, rodents and flying insects gaining access to the processing room through gaps in the roof structure or where the roof joins the walls. Walls As a minimum requirement, all internal walls should be rendered or plastered with a good quality plaster to prevent dust forming in the processing room. An experienced plasterer should be used to ensure that no cracks or ledges remain in the surface finish, which could accumulate dirt and insects. The lower area of walls, to at least 1.08 metres (four feet) above the floor, is most likely to get dirty from washing equipment, from product splashing etc. and special attention should be paid to ensure that this area is easily cleaned. Higher areas of walls should be painted with a good quality emulsion. The lower parts of walls should be either painted with a waterproof gloss paint, preferably white, to allow them to be thoroughly cleaned, or ideally they should be tiled with glazed tiles. If tiling a process room is too expensive, it is possible to select particular areas such as behind sinks or machinery and only tile these parts. In some countries there is a legal requirement for specified internal finishes and this should be checked with the Ministry of Health or other appropriate authority Windows and doors Window sills should be made to slope for two reasons: to prevent dust from accumulating and to prevent operators from leaving cloths or other items lying there, which in turn can attract insects. Windows allow staff to work in natural daylight, which is preferable to and cheaper than electric lighting. However, in tropical climates there is a natural inclination for workers to open windows to allow greater circulation of fresh air. This provides easy access for flying insects, which can readily contaminate the product. Windows should therefore be fitted with mosquito mesh to allow them to be left open. Normally doors should be kept closed, but if they are used regularly there is again a tendency for them to be left open with similar consequences of animals and insects entering the plant. In this case, thin metal chains or strips of material that are hung vertically from the door lintel may deter insects and some animals, while allowing easy access for staff. Alternatively mesh door screens can be used. Doors should be fitted accurately so that there are no gaps beneath them and all storeroom doors should be kept closed to prevent insects and rodents from destroying stock or ingredients. Floors It is essential to ensure that the floors of processing rooms and storerooms are constructed of good quality concrete, smooth finished and without cracks. In some developing countries, it is possible to buy proprietary floor paints or vinyl based coatings, but these are usually very expensive. Generally, it is not adequate to use the red wax floor polishes that are commonly found in households, as these wear away easily and could contaminate either products or packages. Over time, spillages of acidic fruit products react with concrete and cause it to erode. Attention should therefore be paid to cleaning up spillages as they occur and to regularly monitor the condition of the floor. The comers where the floor and the walls join are places for dirt to collect. During construction of the floor, it should therefore be curved up to meet the wall. It is possible to place fillets of concrete (or 'coving') in the comers of an existing floor to fill up the right angle, but care is needed to ensure that new gaps are not created which would harbour dirt and insects. The floor should slope at an angle of approximately 1 in 8 to a central drainage channel. At the end of a day's production, the floor can be thoroughly washed and drained. Proper drainage prevents pools of stagnant water forming, which would in turn risk contamination of equipment and foods. The drainage channel should be fitted with an easily removed steel grating so that the drain can be cleaned. Where the drain exits the building, there is a potential entry point for rodents and crawling insects unless wire mesh is fitted over the drain opening. This too should be easily removed for cleaning. Lighting and power General room lighting should be minimised wherever possible. Full use should be made of natural daylight, which is both free and better quality light, especially for intricate work. Where additional lighting is needed, florescent tubes are cheaper to operate than incandescent bulbs. However, if machinery is used that has fast moving exposed parts, these should be lit with incandescent bulbs and not tubes. This is because even though the parts should have guards fitted, a rotating machine can appear to stand still if its speed matches the number of cycles of the mains electricity that powers fluorescent tubes - with obvious dangers to operators. All electric power points should be placed at a sufficiently high level above the floor that there is no risk of water entering them during washing the floor or equipment. Ideally, waterproof sockets should be used. It is important to use each power point for one application and not use multiple sockets which risk overloading a circuit and causing a fire. If there are insufficient power points for the needs of a process, additional points should be installed, even though this is more expensive. All plugs should be fitted with fuses that are appropriate for the power rating of the equipment and ideally the mains supply should have an earth leakage trip switch. If three-phase power is needed for larger machines or for heavy loads from electric heating, it is important that the wiring is installed by a qualified electrician to balance the supply across the three phases. Water supply and sanitation Water is essential in nearly all fruit and vegetable processing, both as a component of products and for cleaning. An adequate supply of potable water should therefore be available from taps around the processing area. In many countries, the mains supply is unreliable or periodically contaminated and it is therefore necessary for the entrepreneur to make arrangements to secure a regular supply of good quality water each day. This can be done by installing two high level, covered storage tanks either in the roof-space or on pillars outside the building. They can be filled alternately when mains water is available and while one tank is being used, any sediment in water in the other tank is settling out. As sedimentation takes several hours, the capacity of each tank should be sufficient for one day's production. The tanks should have a sloping base and be fitted with drain valves above the slope and at the lowest point. In use, water is taken from the upper valve and when the tank is almost empty, the lower valve is opened to flush out any sediment that has accumulated. Water that is included in a product should be carefully treated to remove all traces of sediment and if necessary, it should be sterilised. This is particularly important if the product is not heated after water has been mixed in as an ingredient. There are four ways of treating water at a small scale: by filtration; by heating; by ultra-violet light and by chemical sterilants, such as hypochlorite (also named 'chlorine solution' or 'bleach'). Other water treatment methods are generally too expensive at a small scale of operation. Filtration through domestic water filters is slow, but having made the capital expenditure, it is relatively cheap. Larger industrial filters are available in some countries. Heating water to boiling and holding it at that temperature for 10-15 minutes is simple and has low capital costs, but it is expensive because of fuel costs and it is time consuming to do routinely. Heating sterilises the water but does not remove sediment and boiled water may therefore require filtering or standing to remove sediment. Ultra-violet light destroys micro-organisms in water and commercial water treatment units that use this principle are coming down in price to the point that they can be suitable for those small scale processors that use a lot of water. Again, this method does not remove sediment from the water. Finally, chemical sterilisation using hypochlorite is fast, relatively cheap and effective against a wide range of micro-organisms. Cleaning water should contain about 200 ppm of chorine and water that is used as an ingredient should contain about 0.5 ppm to avoid giving a chlorine flavour to the product. A chlorine concentration of 200 ppm can be made by adding 1 litre of bleach to 250 litres of water and a 0.5 ppm solution is obtained by adding 2.5 ml of bleach to 250 litres of water. Although chlorine kills most micro-organisms, it also has a number of disadvantages: it can corrode aluminium equipment; it can taint foods; bleach must be handled with great care as it damages the necessary, the concentration of chlorine in water can be measured using a chemical dye that produces a colour when it reacts with chlorine. The intensity of the colour is compared to standard colours on glass discs in a 'comparator'. Good sanitation is essential to reduce the risk of product contamination and to deter insects, rodent and birds. All wastes should be placed in bins and not piled on the floor. Processes should have a management system in place to remove wastes from the building as they are produced, rather than letting them accumulate during the day. Wastes should never be left in a processing room overnight. Good sanitation is essential to reduce the risk of product contamination and to deter insects, rodent and birds. All wastes should be placed in bins and not piled on the floor. Processes should have a management system in place to remove wastes from the building as they are produced, rather than letting them accumulate during the day. Wastes should never be left in a processing room overnight. Layout of equipment and facilities Raw materials should move through a process and through the room without paths crossing. Different stages in a process should be physically separated wherever possible. This helps prevent contamination of finished products by incoming, often dirty, raw materials and clearly identifies areas of the room where special attention to hygiene is necessary. This is particularly important to prevent contamination arising from activities such as bottle washing in which inevitable breakages produce glass splinters that could contaminate a product. This separation also reduces the likelihood of accidents or of operators bumping into each other. Perishable raw materials should be stored separately from non-perishable ingredients and packaging materials. A separate office allows records to be filed and kept clean and provides a quieter working environment for book-keeping. Toilets should either be housed in a separate building or two doors should exist between them and a processing area. All workers should have access to hand-washing facilities with soap and clean towels. Laboratory facilities are generally not needed in fruit and vegetable processing, although a separate table for conducting quality assurance checks or check-weighing packages of finished product could be located in the office or in a separate area of the processing room. Back to Top of page Please contact webmaster to report any problems with this site. Thanks, Stewart.