Preface

Tradtional food factory design has primarily been concerned with food engineering
and manufacturing economics, such that the scale, flexibility and design of the
factory reduced unit food production costs to a minimum. Factory design had to
account for the available equipment and processes necessary for the production of
the foodstuff of concern at the time, and in this sense, new food technologies in
processing, heating and cooling maintain factory design innovation.
Hygiene has always been regarded as important, though for the vast majority of
food products that were either raw (fresh meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, fresh produce
etc.), frozen or ambient shelf-stable,the prime concern was pest control. The first
driver for improved hygienic design was as a consequence of the development and
acceptance of hazard analysis and, in particular, the hazard analysis critical control
point (HACCP) philosophy. Whilst HACCP primarily concentrated on the control
of biological, chemical and physical hazards associated with the food process, it
did focus attention on the concept of the elimination of the hazards in the first
place. Whilst again, t h ~ was
s primarily concerned with preventing pest access into
the factory and airborne contaminantsvia improved air filtration equipment, more
radical questions were posed, for example, if glass was seen as a hazard to the food
product, why not build a factory with no glass in it?
The major development in the hygienic design of factories came with the
advent of the chilled food industry in the UK and other parts of Europe. The
production of chilled, ready-to-eat (RTE) food products demanded that any further
processing of the product after a heat or other product decontamination treatment
was undertaken in a segregated area, initially denoted a high care or high risk area.
The use of segregated areas or zones built on the experience of the dried goods
sector, where separate rooms had been used for the handling of, for example,
dried infant formula milk after spray drying and also on other manufacturing
sectors, such as pharmaceuticals. But what constitutes effective barrier control,
particularly for the management of pathogens such as Listeria monocytogenes?

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Research and practical experience in the 1990s focused on the barriers necessary
to prevent the ingress of pathogens and spoilage microorganismsinto the high risk
area via the food product, ingredients and packaging, the food operatives,
sanitation crew and maintenance engineers and their associated implements and
tools, and from the surroundmg low risk environment, including physical
segregation and air movement.
Technologies and practices developed at k s time now form the basis of how
food factories should be effectively segregated for microbiological control.
Interestingly, however, while these technologies were originally developed to
control Listeria, the industly has now turned full circle and they are currently
being adopted to control Salmonella in dried food factories that have traditionally
had little physical segregation, such as those producing confectionary, cereals and
nuts.
At the same time as the development of the chilled food industry, failures in the
safe manufacture of foods became a major interest in the media. This was both a
consequence of the media naming and shaming food manufacturers when
unfortunate food poisoning incidents occurred and the media actively trying to
enter food premises and ‘expose’the factories allegedly poor hygienic practices.
Indeed, in the UK, the introduction of security fences around food factories was
thought to have been instigated to prevent the ingress of reporters rather than
prevent petty criminal activities.
Public demand for improved food hygiene standards following media reports
also focused the attention of the major international food retailers. The concept
here was that minimum acceptable hygiene standards should be attained, such that
any factory, anywhere in the world, that was supplying food to a major retailer
should be designed to an acceptable standard and adopt acceptable good hygienic
practices. This was initiated via individual retailer audit standards, which have
now been developed to world standards via the Global Foods Standards Initiative
(GFSI, http://www.mygfsi.com/). In all retailer audit standards approved by the
GFSI, appropriate factory design and associated segregation and barrier control
are fundamental requirements for food suppliers.
Finally, the potential for the deliberate contamination of food products via
bioterrorism has had an impact on food factory design. Whilst the risk
of bioterrorism may be low for many factories, lessons learnt from helping to
prevent bioterrorism, such as not storing raw materials or finished products
outside the factory or improvements in how raw materials are accepted from
transport vehicles into the factory, can also help reduce general contamination and
thus improve food quality and safety.
There has previously been little information in the available literature as to
what constitutes good hygienic design. This book, therefore, constitutes the first
comprehensive international guide on the principles of hygienic factory design.
The first chapter illustrates how the preparation of a business case for a new
factory or factory refurbishment determines the proposed building’s size, process
flow, internal layout and segregation and requirements for services. This is further
reinforced in Chapter 2, which specifically details the role of the equipment and
 Preface xxxv

process in the potential building design. The rest of the book determines the fine
details of the hygienic design, construction and commissioning of the building,
following the business case’s acceptance by the company’s management.
Part I of the book reviews the legislative requirements pertaining to hygienic
factory design in Europe, the USA, Japan, Australia and New Zealand and
Southern African countries. Together with retailer requirements, these form the
minimum requirements for food factory design, which are then summarized in a
single chapter. Part I1 details the large-scale building design issues, includmg the
impact of the factory site, general factory layout, factory segregation for hazard
control and the management of airflows.
Part I11 of the book provides information on the hygienic design of the factory
envelope including the walls, ceilings, floor and drains. Part IV then provides
details on the hygienic provision of services including electricity, lighting, piping,
exhaust and dust control systems and steam, and the requirements for fixtures
including walkways and stairways.
Part V of the book gives hygienic guidance on the operation of the factory
including design for openings and doors, for storage facilities, for plant cleaning
and disinfection, for refrigerated areas and for the provision and management of
food operatives. Finally, Part VI considers the hygienic management of the
building process, the commissioning of the building and a range of additional
considerations, includmg the requirements of insurance companies and protection
against deliberate product contamination.
Food processors and building contractors are encouraged to use the guidance
provided in t h ~ book
s to ensure that food factories are hygienically designed and
thus provide a hygienic infrastructure for the safe and wholesome manufacture of
the food product. If a hygienic infrastructure is not provided in the first instance,
retrofitting to improve food safety will always be expensive, if not impossible.

John Holah
Huub L. M. Lelieveld