Sanitary Design: An Essential Component of Food Safety

By Ricardo de Castro, Food Safety Professional in Asia Pacific

As in all parts of the world, food safety is a concern in Asia Pacific, a region with a highly diverse culture and food production system. In the Philippines, food manufacturers work hard to bridge the gap between food safety regulation and practices. For Filipinos, producing safe and healthy food has become a top priority. Unfortunately, not all food manufacturers are aware of what sanitary design means or the role it plays in managing potential food safety hazards.

Small and medium-sized businesses, as well as family-owned businesses, which are an important part of the food ecosystem in the country, are usually challenged by a lack of knowledge and the cost related to compliance with sanitary design requirements. At the end, their resources are limited compared to those of large manufacturing companies.

In this economic environment, the hygienic and sanitary design of equipment and building structures has become a gap to bridge in the safe food production cycle, especially for a large group of food manufacturers in the Philippines.

What is sanitary design?

Sanitary design is a set of standards and conditions related to food hygiene and considers all structural and equipment designs, repairs, modifications, or purchases to reduce the potential contamination, cross-contact, and pest infestation, and to facilitate cleaning efforts.

Food processing plants use sanitary design to prevent physical, chemical, and biological contamination of their products. A small crack, a hole, a non-sanitary weld, or even an irregular surface in the equipment may represent an opportunity for accumulation of organic material and microbiological growth.

Establishing an effective sanitary design compliance program

Companies often overlook adequate sanitary design because it is seen as an additional cost, yet it is the first step toward reducing and preventing food contamination risks, establishing hygiene standards, and providing food-safe, sanitary conditions.

Here are some suggestions of how you can establish an effective sanitary design compliance program:

1. Management commitment: Work with your management team to ensure sanitary design is considered a priority and resources are allocated to support compliance with sanitary design requirements, including the provision of training and engineering solutions.
2. Assemble the team: Create a multi-disciplinary team that includes personnel trained in sanitary design. This team should be responsible for establishing the sanitary design requirements based on existing guidelines or standards relevant to the food industry sector. They are also responsible for the review and approval of the plans, whether for new or modified projects that pertain to production and storage building construction and equipment.
3. Train and educate the members: Make sure personnel responsible for the purchase, installation, use, maintenance, and verification of the building structures and equipment have knowledge of sanitary design principles.
4. Verify compliance: Include sanitary design requirements as part of the monthly self-inspection.
5. Be detail-oriented in your process: Identify the root cause and implement the actions that will improve compliance to design requirements.
6. Adopt sanitary design principle as part of the food safety culture.

Here are some resources than can help you expand your knowledge on sanitary design:

• Sanitary design online module - This module is part of the Food Safety and Sanitation course and it can be completed individually or as part of the full training program.
• GMP/Sanitation Workshop - Check our schedule for our next virtual instructor-led session. Private sessions are also available. Send us an email to infoapac@aibinternational.com for additional details.
• Sanitary Design: A Key Factor in Preventing Food Contamination – Blog article