food hygiene & safety 23
Stainless steel belts for better
hygiene in food processing
Staffan Karlsson highlights the hygienic
advantages of using stainless steel-made
belts in the food industry.
hink of items made of stainless steel and
T
the likelihood is that, not too far down your
list, will be at least one of the following:
cutlery, catering equipment and surgical
instruments.
And there is one good reason why all three product
types make such extensive use of this material: hygiene.
Stainless steel is inherently clean. It is flat and
smooth, so there are no crevices or holes in which dirt
can hide. It is impervious, so it will not absorb bacteria,
Fig. 1. A steel belt is used as part of the cooling process
odours or flavours. And its hardness not only makes it
for chocolate pastilles.
long-lasting but also means that it can be cleaned and
sterilised by a whole range of methods involving heat, damp or even corrosive conditions; and with liquid, solid
scrubbing, high pressure sprays and even chemicals. or sticky products. And it is for all these reasons that steel
And while all these benefits are equally applicable to is now being used in preference to other belt materials
the food industry, there are two additional qualities, the in applications as wide ranging as meat cutting, poultry
durability and thermal properties of the material, that handling, fish freezing, coffee freezing, vegetable drying,
make steel – and specifically, the steel belt – the ideal tobacco drying, chocolate cooling, candy mass cooling,
processing medium. pizza baking, sponge cake baking, biscuit baking and
A steel belt can be employed in processes involving more.
temperatures as widely varied as -80°C and 750°C; in dry, Sandvik Process Systems, the company responsible for
☞
Fig. 2. Steel belts
are inherently
clean and do
not absorb
bacteria, odours
or flavours. They
can be used
in processes
involving
widely varying
temperatures
– ranging from
-70˚C and 750˚C
– plus dry, damp
or corrosive
conditions. Here
they are used in a
bake oven.
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