How to design the food cleanroom?

Published: 22-Oct-2020

Wiskind is a technological company specialising in scientific research, development, implementation, promotion of own innovative cleanroom enclosure system products, ceiling systems, wall partitions, doors and windows system and engineering projects. Here it provides a detailed overview of how to design a food cleanroom

Food hygiene and safety are related to everyone's health. Food cleanrooms provide an important guarantee for food production safety. Cleanroom refers to the removal of particulates, harmful air, bacteria and other pollutants in the air within a certain space, and the indoor temperature, cleanliness, indoor pressure, air velocity and air distribution, noise, vibration, lighting, and static electricity are controlled in a certain space. A specially designed room within the scope of demand.

Food factories must not only build cleanrooms, but also have constant temperature and humidity. The cleanliness of dust-free workshops in food factories and the continuous stability of pollution control are the core specifications for the quality of food factories. Regardless of whether it is a new or renovated food factory clean workshop, it must be carried out in accordance with relevant national standards and norms. The area of the food cleanroom is suitable for production and the layout needs to be reasonable.

1. Workshop structure

The food workshop mainly adopts steel-concrete or brick structure and according to the needs of different products, the structure design is suitable for the special requirements of specific food processing.

The space of the workshop should be adapted to the production. The average area of processing personnel in the production workshop should be no less than 1.5 square meters except for equipment. Overcrowded workshops not only hinder production operations, but also collisions between personnel and contact between personnel's work clothes and production equipment can easily cause product contamination. The height of the top surface of the workshop should not be less than 3 meters and the cooking room should not be less than 5 meters.

The sanitary facilities of the processing area and the processing personnel, such as changing rooms, showers and toilets, should be a combined structure in the building. The cold storage and processing areas for aquatic products, meat products and quick-frozen foods should also be a conjoined structure.

2. Workshop layout

The layout of the workshop should not only facilitate the connection of various production links, but also facilitate the sanitary control of the processing process to prevent the occurrence of cross-contamination in the production process.

The food processing process is basically a process from raw materials to semi-finished products to finished products, that is, from non-clean to clean. Therefore, the production of processing workshops should be arranged in accordance with the order of product processing in principle, so that product processing is never clean The transition from the link to the cleaning link does not allow crossover and backflow in the processing flow.

Corresponding isolation measures should be taken between the clean area and the non-clean area to control the flow of people and logistics between each other, so as to avoid cross-contamination and the processed products are passed through the pass box.

Set up cleaning and disinfection rooms for tools and instruments in appropriate places in the workshop, and configure cleaning tanks, disinfection tanks and rinsing tanks for cleaning, and disinfection of tools and instruments. If necessary, there is a supply of cold and hot water, and the temperature of the hot water should not be low. At 82°C.

3. Workshop floor, cleanroom wall panel, ceiling panel, doors and windows

The floor of the workshop should be made of non-slip, sturdy, water-proof, easy-to-clean, and corrosion-resistant materials, and the surface should be flat and free of water. The level of the entire floor of the workshop should be slightly higher than the ground level of the factory during the design and construction.

The cleanroom wall panels should be covered with a skirt of more than 2 meters and the walls should be made of corrosion-resistant, easy to clean and disinfect, strong, impermeable materials and light-coloured, non-toxic, waterproof, mildew-proof, not easy to fall off and washable Construction of cleanroom panels.

The cleanroom ceiling panels should be easy to clean and the work area where water vapour is generated should not be easy to condense water droplets. A proper arc should be formed during construction to prevent condensation water from falling on the product.

The cleanroom doors and windows have anti-insect, dust-proof and rodent-proof facilities, and the materials used should be corrosion-resistant and easy to clean. The window sill is not less than 1 meter from the ground and has a 45-degree slope.

4. Temperature control facilities

The workshop for processing perishable and perishable products should be equipped with air-conditioning facilities. The temperature in the meat and aquatic product processing workshop should not exceed 15°C~18°C in summer and the temperature in the marinating room of meat products should not exceed 4°C.

Tools, equipment and tools used in the process of equipment processing, especially machinery and equipment that contact food, operating platforms, conveyor belts, pipes and other equipment, baskets, trays, knives and other tools should meet the following conditions:

  • Non-toxic and will not pollute the product
  • Corrosion resistant, not easy to rust, not easy to ageing and deformation
  • Easy to clean and disinfect
  • The material of the hose used in the workshop should meet the requirements of the relevant food hygiene standard GB11331.

5. Personnel sanitation facilities

  1. Changing room

    The workshop should be equipped with a dressing room suitable for the number of processing personnel. The dressing room should be connected to the workshop. When necessary, separate dressing rooms should be set up for the processing personnel working in the clean and non-clean areas, enter and exit the respective working areas. The channels are separated.

    Keep personal clothing and shoes separate from work clothes and boots. The hanger should keep the work clothes hanging at a certain distance from the wall and not touch the wall. The dressing room should maintain good ventilation and lighting. The indoor air can be sterilised by installing ultraviolet lamps or ozone generators.

  2. Shower room

    The meat processing workshop (including canned meat) should be equipped with a shower room connected to the workshop. The size of the shower room should be compatible with the number of processing personnel in the workshop. The shower nozzle can be configured at a ratio of 1 for every 10 people. The shower room should be well ventilated, and the floor and wall skirt should be constructed of light-coloured, easy-to-clean, corrosion-resistant and impermeable materials. The floor should be non-slip, the upper part of the wall skirt and the top surface should be painted with anti-mould paint, the floor should be well drained, well ventilated, and supplied with hot and cold water.

  3. Hand washing and disinfection facilities

    The entrance to the workshop should be equipped with hand-washing and disinfection facilities commensurate with the number of personnel in the workshop. The number of hand-washing faucets required to be configured should be 1 for every 10 people and 1 for every 20 people over 200 people.

    The hand-washing faucet must be a non-manual switch and the hand-washing place must have a soap dispenser with hot water supply and warm water. The number of containers for hand sanitiser should also be adapted to the number of users and should be placed reasonably for easy use.

    Hand dryers must be items that will not cause cross-contamination, such as disposable paper towels, disinfection towels, etc.

    Sufficient hand washing and disinfection facilities and corresponding hand dryers should be installed at appropriate locations in the workshop, so that workers can wash and disinfect their hands regularly during the production operation, or wash their hands in a timely and convenient manner after soiling their hands. The water discharged from the hand-washing place cannot flow directly on the ground, and must be led into the drain pipe through a water seal.

  4. Toilet

    In order to facilitate production and hygiene management, the toilet connected to the workshop should not be located in the processing area, but can be located in the dressing area. The doors and windows of the toilet cannot be opened directly to the processing area. The walls, floors, doors and windows of the toilet should be made of light-coloured, easy to clean and disinfect, corrosion-resistant, impermeable materials, and equipped with flushing, hand-washing and disinfection facilities and the windows are insect-proof Fly device.

6. Storage facilities

Raw and auxiliary materials library

The storage facilities for raw and auxiliary materials should be able to ensure that the quality of the raw materials and auxiliary materials prepared for production and processing will not change in quality and cause new safety and health hazards during the storage process. Cleanliness, hygiene and prevention of rodents and pests are the basic requirements for storage facilities for raw materials/auxiliary materials for various food processing.

The place where fruit and vegetable raw materials are stored should also have sun-shield and rain-proof conditions and be well ventilated.

In areas with higher temperatures, there should be a dedicated fresh-keeping warehouse.

Packaging material library

Food factories should set up special storage warehouses for the storage and custody of packaging materials. The warehouses should be clean and dry, with facilities for preventing flies, insects and rodents, and packaging materials inside and outside should be separated.

Keep a certain distance between the material stack and the ground and wall, and should be covered with a dust cover.

Finished product library

The scale and capacity of the finished product storage facilities of the food factory should be compatible with the factory's production, and should be equipped to ensure that the finished product can maintain stable quality and be free from pollution during storage. The finished product storage warehouse should be equipped with facilities to prevent insects, rodents and birds from entering. The building materials of the cold storage must meet the requirements of the country's relevant material regulations. Automatic temperature recorders must be installed in cold storage and temperature storage (normal) storage for export products.

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