In terms of both food safety and employee safety, water treatment and steam networks in the food industry must be more than ever at the heart of the risk management policy of industry players.

 

Health and personal safety is a major concern for the food industry

Regardless of the products manufactured, the industry as a whole has been working for decades to reduce the risk of accidents. 62% of companies in the food processing sector rank hygiene requirements as their top concern. In second place are risks related to employee health and safety. Financial and administrative risks are ranked third, with 43% citing them as a concern.

In the food industry, as elsewhere, the entire processing chain is affected, at every level. This naturally includes water treatment, whether in liquid or steam form. From a health perspective, water contamination can have particularly serious consequences. Repeated health scandals, coupled with increasingly easy access to information, have led to a certain degree of public distrust of food manufacturers. Moreover, with 55,000 annual inspections, the results of which are made public, ensuring the food safety of facilities (including water systems) is no longer optional. Finally, regarding individual safety, while manual handling represents the major risk in the food industry (51% of workplace accidents), thermal burns (around steam production systems, for example) are responsible for 2,000 workplace accidents per year in France, resulting in nearly 12,000 days of sick leave.

Food steam and ingredient water: associated risks and standards

Whether dealing with water or steam, different qualities must be distinguished depending on the industrial processes involved, based on the intended use: wastewater and drinking water, utility water, process water, and ingredient water. Furthermore, it is economically impossible to use pure water or steam in all processes.

Steam and water are considered ingredients as soon as they come into contact with the finished food (or beverage). The contaminants (on which purity depends) are potentially numerous: solid (dust, rust: calcium and magnesium carbonates and sulfates, iron oxides), chemical (heavy metals, sodium salts, amines and other additives, chlorides, sulfates), biological (bacteria, viruses, moulds) or non-condensable (oxygen, ammonia, carbon dioxide).

To manage these risks, which can have significant impacts on the company if there is an incident (direct costs of product recalls, damaged brand image, alteration of product specifications, etc.), in addition to possible internal standards and guidelines (disinfection, hygiene, traceability principles, etc.), two regulations govern the sector, depending on the target markets.

In Europe, Regulation (EC) No 1935/2004 imposes three rules for materials and equipment that come into contact with food: they must not pose a risk to human health, they must not alter the organoleptic characteristics of food, and they must not alter the composition of food. A number of complementary standards (EN285, ISO 22000) can assist companies in developing their internal standards and, consequently, in designing their facilities.

It should be noted that regulations for infant products (particularly in the dairy industry) are even stricter, with the requirement to now eliminate chlorates and perchlorates. In all cases, the work and recommendations of the EHEDG (European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group) can guide food manufacturers according to their specific challenges and constraints.

 

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Personal safety: reducing the risk of accidents

Water treatment also involves maintenance issues for the facilities, which require the intervention of one or more operators, as well as compliance with regulations.

And there are often a number of risks: handling bags of salt for water softeners, thermal burns on steam systems (steam and condensate), chemical burns (chlorine, concentrated acid-based analytical products, etc.). Preventing these risks involves the gradual evolution of installations. This includes, for example, the introduction of silos for bulk salt, the on-site production of salt-based biocides, and the design of steam systems that are simpler to maintain and safer.

In this context of networks undergoing significant pressure, the recommendations of the National Institute for Research and Safety (INRS), particularly regarding lockout/tagout procedures, as well as the ISO 4126 standard, relating to safety devices for protection against excessive pressure, are now among the reference texts for ensuring the safety of installations.

In any case, faced with increasingly complex regulations, and the importance of direct and indirect costs in the event of an incident or even an accident, food companies must now consider water treatment as fundamental to the production process, creating, above all, both individual health and safety.