FEATURE u Compressed Air
BEKO’s expertise in compressed air safeguards supplier contracts
Although compressed air plays a key role in food and beverage production, its impact on food safety is often underestimated. The tough regulatory requirements to ensure health and hygiene standards in food processing and production are one key consideration; the other is the market clout of the major retail chains. They carry out regular audits of their food and beverage suppliers to check compliance with their extremely high standards. In many cases contracts worth millions may be at stake. How sure are you that your compressed air is up to standard?
C
ontaminated compressed air in the food chain is one of the ways the safety of food or beverage may be
compromised during production, processing, handling, packaging or transporting. The most common contaminants are dirt, water and oil, but also microbiological organisms (e.g., bacteria). If compressed air comes into direct contact with the food or beverage, a much higher standard of contaminant control is required. When food retailers send their auditors to check health and hygiene standards at a food site, the quality of the compressed that comes into direct or indirect contact with the products could well be checked. So, if an audit is due, it’s a good idea to ask the experts from BEKO Technologies to check in advance for compliance, e.g., with the relevant ISO 8573 standard.
CRUCIAL PRECAUTION “To manage food safety you have to measure, customers come to us for our expertise in compressed air technology and because we’re known for our excellent technical background,” says Matthew Harrison, BEKO’s Sales Manager UK & Ireland, who adds that: “It’s only in the past two decades that standards such as ISO 8573 or the Code of Practice issued by the British Compressed Air Society have become the norm, and probably one of the reasons why we still see food sites with very basic compressed air equipment – and correspondingly low standards.”
When a customer calls in BEKO’s
product support staff to check the quality of compressed air at a food site, it expects BEKO’s experience in testing the relevant equipment to be the preconditions for an objective assessment.
“If the customer wants to know what
improvements are possible, BEKO will suggest a solution,” says Paul Mucklow,
14 June 2021 Irish Manufacturing
METPOINT OCV: To manage food safety you have to measure
© BEKO TECHNOLOGIES Limited
BEKO’s Product Support Manager. “Because every food site is different, we always supply a customer with a one-off, site- specific solution.” The necessary investment, such as, say, equipment to generate dry, dust-free and oil-free compressed air to meet strict food safety requirements, may not be cheap. But the loss of a key contract to supply a major retail chain would be a lot more expensive.
UP TO STANDARD When you ask BEKO to carry out a precautionary check on your compressed air equipment, you can count on expert personnel. BEKO trains its product support staff to the highest standards through its own online training programme, British Compressed Air Society courses and advanced training at the parent company in Germany.
“Many food manufacturers admit they
don’t know enough about compressed air, so they come to us looking to safeguard their contracts with retailers. Our expertise can give them peace of mind,” says Harrison. If you’re uncertain about the quality of
your compressed air, feel free to contact BEKO Technologies. They will send a sales engineer to first check if the overall constellation of your compressed air equipment makes a validation test possible. “We can first arrange a free visit by a sales engineer; then, there’s the possibility of a free test – naturally without any obligation,” says Mucklow. “It could be a contract saver!”
BEKO TECHNOLOGIES
www.beko-technologies.com/en-gb/gb/
www.irish-manufacturing.com
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