Critical Hygiene

All food grade products should be manufactured in a certified Critical Hygiene area.

 

Achievement of this standard of hygiene includes:

§         Bacterial Swabbing and Monitoring

§         Air Filtered to 1 Micron

§         Positive Air Pressure at a 40 Pascale differential between inside and outside factory

§         Full Airlock Procedures for people, product, consumables or materials entering into a Critical Hygiene Area

§         Full change procedures for staff and visitors including sterilization, overalls, hairnets and beard masks.

 

The standards employed to ensure critical hygiene production cannot be understated.

 

Water pipes, air pipes and electrical cables should be underground and not pass overhead to each machine to ensure that there is no possible place for dust to gather within the production area.

 

Bacterial swabbing should occur  monthly within the production area.

 

There should be positive air pressure at 40 Pascales within the production area so all airflow is from inside the production area outward.  Airlock procedures should be  in place for:

§         Products leaving

§         Consumable entering (e.g cartons)

§         People

 

Quality food storage containers wiith a critical hygiene presences of level 5 means there is no need not to pre-wash containers.

 

 

Packaging products are made from plastic Polymers in grades that are suitable for food packaging and comply with United States regulations FDA title 21, CFR Part 177 1520 for Olefin Polymers and or EU Directive 90/128.

 

Products should be tested to a number of important quality and food safety criteria including:

§         Function

§         Lid Seal

§         Stackability

§         Impact Strength

§         Microwave and Freezer Safe

 

Packaging should be  suitable for use in applications which include:

§         Freezing to -30°C

§         Baking/Reheating to 150°C

§         Hot Filling to 95°C

§         Pasteurising

§         Film or Foil Sealing

 

Some of these applications or performance criteria require special polymers, additives or conditions.

 

Handling

§         Less breakage of filled/unfilled product

§         Eliminates safety issues involved with customer consumption handling and re-usage

§         Pre-decoration eliminates possible downtime on line and allows QA to concentrate on other areas.  This also eliminates set up time of labeling machinery

§         Hot fill and/or freezer capability

§         Critical hygiene - no need to pre-wash containers

§         Lowers distribution costs due to less weight.

 

Reusable

Quality products will have a strong reputation in their domestic market of being reused for many varied uses after the product has been consumed.  This can be attributed to the following factors:

§         Excellent seal

§         Dishwasher safe

§         Microwaveable

§         Freezer Safe – home domestic freezer

 

 

Screw thread cap sizes are generally expressed as two numbers. 

The first number refers to the cap diameter (in millimetres) and the corresponding Glass Packaging Institute (GPI)/Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) finish diameter. 

The second number refers to the height and thread configuration of the closure or finish.

These are commonly used bottle caps or jar caps and finishes. 

Simply click on the image below 2 or 3 times to enlarge it correspondingly.  Happy investigating.