< Previous40 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net PROCESS, CONTROL AND AUTOMATION considered. A good analogy here is a car: you’re going to get more miles out of a tank of petrol or charged battery if your car is regularly and thoroughly serviced and maintained, if you drive at consistent speeds and plan ahead for breaking and cornering. The same is true of production and processing where regular inspection and maintenance can sustain efficiency and identify causes for concern before they result in extended disruptions. This will also ensure that machines are running at optimum levels and, thus, at their most environmentally friendly. Reducing energy consumption during processing can also be accomplished by addressing and altering the cooking techniques themselves. Research carried out by the University of Lincoln, UK in collaboration with industry partner OAL, found that using novel approaches to a process called Steam Infusion can reduce energy consumption by seventeen per cent, cutting close to nine tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per production line each year. Steam Infusion technology is unique in that it reduces carbon emissions directly at the site of manufacturing, which can support businesses’ plans to incrementally cut emissions throughout Tel: +44 (0)1707 331111 info@welwyntoolgroup.co.uk www.welwyntoolgroup.co.uk Hot Air delivered direct to the point of application HOTWINDMISTRALVULCANFood & Drink International 41 www.fdiforum.net PROCESS, CONTROL AND AUTOMATION their facilities, while the technology enables alignment to UN Sustainable Development Goals. As well as the ongoing issues that producers and processors have been facing for many years now – including staff shortages and the continuing skills gap – more challenges have arisen over the last few years following the pandemic and then adding in Brexit and the cost of living. The job market is even harder to fill, especially when it comes to less-skilled, lower-pay jobs that a lot of food and drink factories traditionally used foreign labour for. The UK Government may be claiming that now is the time to “embrace British labour for these jobs” but that simply won’t fly with the wages offered and the national living wage. Hence, further automation and adoption of AI may become a necessity for survival for Our extensive product range includes: Innovative, system-compatible air heaters Powerful, robust blowers Compact, flexible hot-air blowers Comprehensive range of accessories 3 Heat output & air volume steplessly adjustable with potentiometers 3 Integrated temperature controls 3 Integrated temperature probes 3 Protection against heating elements or devices overheating 3 Brushless power motors 3 Integrated power electronics © stock.adobe.com/ipopba many businesses. There’s no single solution to meeting the ongoing challenges facing the manufacturing industry. However, automation and smart technologies can not only boost efficiency and output but can also help to reduce carbon emissions. Now, more than ever, automating is affordable and within reach for smaller firms. The future is indeed now. 42 Food & Drink International HEALTH, SAFETY AND HYGIENE © stock.adobe.com/auremarFood & Drink International 43 HEALTH, SAFETY AND HYGIENE Health, safety and hygiene have such huge ramifications for food and drink manufacturers that every detail has to be considered. That said, the task is not as complex as some would have you believe. T he government’s Food Standard Agency will be the first to tell you that there are four bite-size categories to remember for good hygiene. These are known as the four Cs - cleaning, cooking, chilling and cross- contamination. If we take an attitude of seeing to first things first, let’s take a look at advice for cleaning your ingredients, products and food preparation areas. Here, it may help to plan ahead, beginning with a schedule of what needs to be cleaned and when. The more detailed this can be the better, as the more information is set out about rotas, how cleaning should be done and with which products, the less margin there is for error or falling behind on hygiene. Getting a schedule set down means that tasks can then be easily distributed amongst staff, with each member having their own dedicated cleaning jobs to remember and get to grips with. Beyond that and as part of the daily routine of your business, make sure food areas and equipment are cleaned between tasks, and mop up any spillages that occur through the day even between scheduled cleaning 44 Á44 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net HEALTH, SAFETY AND HYGIENE times. This becomes especially important after handling raw products of animal origin, ensuring no bacteria is transferred between preparation areas or other products. Stop waste from building up by also keeping a strict food disposal schedule and remind yourself and staff of best practice for use of cleaning products. Not only will this reduce waste of cleaning products, but it will keep staff safe when using them, and allay prosecution due to lack of proper hygiene, which isn’t uncommon in food business circles. With all food prep areas correctly cleaned, it’s then time to focus on the proper treatment of ingredients, including cooking. When done properly, cooking and heat treating kills any harmful bacteria that might be found in food products such as meat. Poultry, fowl, pork, rolled joints and minced meat products should be given special attention, and thoroughly cooked through to the middle as this is where bacteria can often hide. Government health advice says that any items that require cooking during production should reach a core temperature of 70 degrees Celsius, and then be left to cook at that temperature for two minutes. Even when this crucial guidance has been followed, food temperature should always be checked with a clean probe inserted into the thickest part of the product or ingredient. Moving from the oven and into the freezer, the polar opposite of ensuring food is bacteria free through cooking is not allowing any to grow while in storage. Foods which will degrade quickly when left to their own devices, and those which present a bacterial risk already, must not be left to stand at room temperature. Chilling foods at 8 degrees Celsius or below - a legal requirement for England, Wales and Northern Ireland - is best for storing foods for shorter periods of time while they await the production line. To be certain that food is kept cool enough for health and safety, it’s considered good practice to set fridges at 5 degrees Celsius or below, as well as running regular checks that units are cold enough for purpose. For longer storage needs, or to prepare products to be sold frozen, all necessary products should be moved to the freezer as soon after delivery as possible. This is especially important because freezing doesn’t kill bacteria, instead merely holding it in stasis to begin multiplying again when thawed. In order to comply with customer safety, the amount of bacteria left to be brought home and consumed - potentially causing severe food poisoning - must be kept to an absolute minimum. As extra safeguarding when freezing foods, separate any product into smaller batches between multiple units and, of course, keep up those temperature checks on freezers as well. Food allowed to defrost may not be fit for consumption, especially if left unchecked for a long period of time. If the worst should happen and one unit is affected by a faulty or malfunctioning freezer, separating out your batches across multiple units will reduce waste © stock.adobe.com/DuskoFood & Drink International 45 www.fdiforum.net HEALTH, SAFETY AND HYGIENE as much as possible. Each of these facets of health, safety and hygiene practice come around to preventing that fourth and final C - the cross-contamination of bacteria between food, surfaces, equipment, or even workers’ hands. Raw animal products, and particularly meats, are the most ready offenders for this. Every surface that’s touched by the product itself, or even so much as dripped on by it, needs careful cleaning to eliminate bacteria all along the production line. One of the worst scenarios to risk is cross- contamination between different food products. If not kept separate, raw meat and its juices can come into contact with any other product currently in production. Having specific equipment for raw animal products, or disinfecting surfaces rigorously where this isn’t possible, will prevent contaminants from spreading over a wider area of the factory. More important still, keeping harmful bacteria isolated and carefully controlled will significantly reduce health risks to customers, or even to workers transporting food to its destination. Through all these four pillars of hygiene, one personal effort remains all-important. Everyone is tired of hearing this nowadays but that doesn’t make it less necessary to point out - wash your hands. Keep yourself, your workers, and the customers you’re providing for safe and, ultimately, protect everyone’s peace of mind. © stock.adobe.com/Quality Stock Arts46 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net EIT INTERNATIONAL Q&A How is EIT working with new markets and addressing differences in food safety cultures? EIT International is committed to developing preventative controls and detection systems to the food, brewery/ beverage, nutrition industries that can help improve safety and reduce downtime. As a global business we work across countries and cultures, we have found that there are differences in approaches to food safety not only between industries but also between countries. This is an interesting additional factor to consider. And we recently collaborated in South Africa with Ryk Lues who is a Professor in Food Safety, Director of the Centre for Applied Food Sustainability and Biotechnology and holds the Research Leadership Chair in Food Safety Culture and Sustainability at the Central University of Technology, South Africa. He specialises in Food Safety Culture and we spoke to him on how culture can influence food safety. Why is culture important? How can a conducive food safety culture help you make safer foods? In recent years the food industry has seen an interesting phenomenon, namely that food safety incidences did not necessarily decrease at a rate concomitant to the expansion of standards and compulsory requirements. Although one cannot argue against the need for responsive and contemporary food safety systems and processes that are monitored and reported effectively, the observation that food safety “beyond” compliance warrants some deeper consideration. This “beyond” simply implies the human factor – the values, beliefs and behaviours held by the employees in the food industry that will direct their behaviours toward reporting and mitigating risks beyond their main functions and responsibilities. Determinants of culture amongst employees on various levels have been conceptualised and proposed by several academics and scientists, and include constructs such as vision, inspiration, empowerment, performance and change appetite. Ultimately, food safety culture is an organisational dynamic that directs behaviours of staff to mitigate food safety risks simply because “this is the way we do things around here”. Q&A EIT International How can you make safer foods? We speak to EIT International who are looking at food safety culture and find out how new technologies are helping their customers. Food & Drink International 47 www.fdiforum.net EIT INTERNATIONAL Q&A “You cannot improve what you can’t measure”: How complex systems require mixed-methods approaches. Although the principle of food safety culture in influencing food handler behaviour may seem simple, the assessment, alignment and improvement of existing food safety cultures within organisations is an aspect that calls for targeted and well- thought-through interventions. The food safety climate and culture are likely to differ amongst production segments and facilities, whereas aspects such as leadership, societal culture, resources, communication, consequence, environment and risk are amongst those factors that will influence and direct behaviours. Valid and reliable assessments, aligned with effective interventions that are tailor- made for the specific environments are essential to ensure effective improvement and ultimately, compliance. Access to effective tools, equipment and infrastructure has been showed by the majority of scientists and authors in the field, to impact the residing food safety culture, both as a result of confirming respect by ensuring a conducive environment, but also in mitigating risk. Equipment and technologies that provide accurate, timeous and trustworthy results remains a key component of risk assurance, mitigation and trust. Food safety culture amongst different cultural groups. The role of societal culture in organisational culture has been debated and demonstrated in various scientific and academic reports and has also emerged as a consideration in the concept of food safety culture. Especially across the farm to fork continuum, where employees from various cultural origins often work together across organisational categories such as seasonal harvesting and agriculture, logistics, processing, packaging and distribution, transport, retail, hospitality and the like, matters of race and gender, ethics, traditional hierarchies, language and beliefs impact culture, as do geo-politics and organised labour. This brings with it the demand for interventions that are responsive and sensitive to the regional context; “one size fits all” approach to food safety culture interventions, may prove to do more harm than good. How do effective and novel technologies support food safety culture? The concept that compliance is a culture construct, has been discussed and promoted by various scientists and workers in the field of food safety culture. Although this may challenge the concept of doing something because “you want to”, rather than because “you have to”, it is generally accepted that food safety culture is not intended to replace compliance, but rather offers an additional layer of assurance. To this effect, monitoring and evaluation are, and is likely to remain the backbone of food safety performance and assurance. As a contemporary monitoring technology, the Bactiscan or Bactiscope provides a non-intrusive intervention using wave-alternating light that enables real-time monitoring and immediate corrective actions, reducing the risk of contamination. By integrating into routine hygiene practices, food processing facilities can ensure compliance with safety standards, minimize downtime and prevent costly recalls. As the Bactiscan and Bactiscope do not rely on chemical consumables they can easily be integrated into a cleaning regime without adding to the operatives’ workload or the amount of time required to clean. Being proactive, the methodology supports a culture of continuous improvement in food safety, emphasizing the importance of maintaining clean and safe production environments. Allowing all involved to see the difference between ‘looking clean’ and ‘being clean’. To learn more about the Centre for Applied Food Sustainability and Biotechnology visit www.cut.ac.za/cafsab/. To discover more about tools that can enhance food safety at your production facility, visit www.eit-international.com or contact us 48 Food & Drink International www.fdiforum.net SNACK FOODS AND READY MEALS F ood on the go has become a staple of our diets in an increasingly busy world. Ready meals have gone from being TV Dinners served when no one is available to cook, to microwaved meals cooked in long queues in the office, so it’s no big surprise the market has boomed and expanded, be it in terms of value, variety or method. The ready meals market is expected to be worth $225 billion by 2030, experiencing a 6.8% annual growth over a decade. That’s not to say there aren’t challenges, however. Ready meals, while convenient, are notoriously unhealthy, often packed with preservatives, salt and carbs, and increased transparency on labelling has left many balking at the high % of rda in each meal. This has led some brands to diversify into healthier options, led in no small part by entrepreneurs selling meal packs online and making quite the profit doing so. Despite that, selling online comes with its own problems as well. Research suggests that consumers prefer to shop for food from stores rather than online portals, due to the ability to physically choose based upon individual item appearance. This is important for manufacturers looking to diversify their suppliers – do not overlook stores. Feeding into this is the international outlook of the market. This highlights the continued importance of packaging in terms of catching the eye and drawing attention and stands in stark contrast to consumer claims that “packaging has no effect” on them, and that it’s the quality of the food that counts. Typically speaking, ready meals make use of cartoning and sleeving for their packaging, usually with the cooking instructions and labelling on the sleeve itself while the food is served in a carton with a film topping – important for allowing the consumer to see the meal itself. Visual confirmation remains key but this method of packaging is not particularly conscientious on the environmental front, leading to questions on how to both satisfy consumer demands to see the product but also have a lower impact on the environment. The environment angle is key, too, because it’s a major concern of younger audiences in particular, and the figures show that young consumers dominate Convenience with health Convenience with health Snacks and ready meals have long been a staple of many diets, especially in today’s busy world, but health-conscious consumers paying more attention to ingredients and packaging have pushed changing dynamic on manufacturers. Food & Drink International 49 www.fdiforum.net SNACK FOODS AND READY MEALS the ready meal market, which has increased demand for canned and dried product ranges. This continues the trend of ready meals moving away from emergency family meals when no one is available to cook, and toward meals for convenience in the office, at university, or on the go. These trends see themselves repeated in the snacks industry. Most notably in recent years, there has been a growing emphasis on healthier snack options as consumers have become E X P L O R E O P P O R T U N I T I E S - G E T H A L A L C E R T I F I E D Halal Food Authority is an industry-leading Halal Food Certification body. We specialise in Halal Certification of Food and Non-Food items including cosmetics, logistics, chemicals, additives & aromas, cleaning substances, packaging, pharmaceutical, ingredients, and much more. Our quality of work and authenticity are showcased through our international accreditation. We are accredited by EIAC and HAK (Turkiye), and also recognised by SFDA (Saudi-Arabia) JAKIM (Malaysia), MUIS (Singapore), CICOT(Thailand), KFDA (Korea), and MUI (Indonesia). www.halalfoodauthority.com - info@halalfoodauthority.com - 0044 (0) 20 8446 7127 50 Á © stock.adobe.com/Prostock-studioNext >