12 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2007 AIB UPDATE

There have been many times during my career as a food safety inspector when poor equipment cleaning was an issue. Inadequate cleaning typically leads to product

contamination concerns. When these issues occur, food safety managers often respond with frustration saying, “I wish the person who built this thing would have cleaned it, maybe then it would be designed better.”

The fi rst few times I heard this comment, I fi gured the manager didn’t want to take responsibility for the poor job his or her staff did when cleaning. But the comment was made so often, it became obvious that a fundamental aspect of food safety was lacking.

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Coaches demand athletes know the fundamentals of their sport. Musicians spend years learning and perfecting fundamen-tals of their instrument. Business and economic fundamentals are essential in management. So why, when it comes to food safety, do we neglect something as fundamental as equipment design?

I recently had the pleasure of visiting a food manufacturer in California that took fundamentals seriously. Before purchasing equipment, the company made sure everything met rigorous design specifi cations for quality, productivity, maintenance and cleaning. In their view, if the equipment was easy to clean and did not leak ingredients or product, it was fundamentally

AIB International Acquires BISSC

BY JON ANDERSON

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2007 AIB UPDATE 13

process and bringing third-party verification into prominence.A major step in BISSC’s restructuring process happened this

year when four of the five supporting organizations decided to resign. The BISSC Board of Directors then voted to dissolve and allow BISSC to become a wholly owned subsidiary of AIB International. AIB’s goal is to revitalize BISSC and return it to a high level of respectability, relevance and reliability.

We expect to achieve this goal, but need help from the industry. Our first step will be to establish an Advisory Committee of repre-sentatives from the food and equipment manufacturing industries. With help from the Advisory Committee, AIB will identify the steps needed to improve BISSC and make recommendations to the American Society of Baking (ASB is the secretariat for the ANSI/BISSC Z50.2 – 2003 Baking Equipment Sanitation Stan-dard). These recommendations will be part of the ANSI process for standards review and maintenance. The Advisory Committee will give the industry a voice in the process of improving and updating the standards. As technologies change, so should the standards in order to remain relevant.

The Advisory Committee also will be asked to offer suggestions on how the certification and third-party verification process should be managed. Respectability and trust in the BISSC symbol is the goal. The symbol should evoke thoughts of a rigorous compliance and verification process. It must deserve respect.

A baker who uses the BISSC standard to establish purchasing specifications deserves to know that the equipment will meet ex-pectations. Reliability in the standard and certification or verifica-tion process is necessary for the industry to embrace BISSC.

With the help of AIB International and BEMA, the baking industry supplier association, successful seminars are offered to help BISSC-registered companies comply with the requirements for certification. These seminars target the equipment manufac-turer and introduce product safety and the importance of proper equipment design. They offer design engineers a better under-standing of product safety and how equipment design is a critical and fundamental aspect of product safety, quality and consumer confidence. Visit www.aibonline.org or contact us at 800/633-5137 for more information about the next seminar. AIB

The author is Head, OSHA Compliance & Educational Product Development, AIB International.

sound and efficient. This facility showed what good fundamentals can mean for

production efficiency and product safety: The facility was well run and very clean. Changeover was swift and allergen control was enhanced by equipment that was easy to disassemble and clean. Also, quality improved, contamination issues decreased, and customer complaints related to foreign material issues were extremely low. It was an impressive facility and everyone was very proud of their workplace. Progressive companies pay attention to proper equipment design as the starting point for improved product safety.

Now is the time to focus on the fundamentals. Microbiological, chemical and physical product contamination all are controlled by proper equipment design. Food safety is a major consumer concern. They expect us to pay attention to the fundamentals and maintain the safety of the food supply so they can buy in confidence.

For many years the Baking Industry Sanitation Standards Committee (BISSC) has provided standards for bakery equipment. BISSC has set the standard for design specifications. Now BISSC is restructuring. A goal has been set to improve the baking industry at a fundamental level. This can be accomplished by revitalizing and updating the BISSC standards, tightening the certification

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Baked goods are fundamental in nearly every culture.

Equipment design is fundamental to the safety and quality

of baked goods. The baking industry and bakery equipment

manufacturers have asked AIB International to revitalize

BISSC and add value to the industry. Please help us achieve

this goal. Contact Jon Anderson or Rosalie Wagner at 866/342-

4772 or 800/633-5137 for more information about how AIB

International is working to restructure BISSC, or how you can

join the BISSC Advisory Committee.

GET INVOLVED

PHOTO: DREAMSTIME IMAGES

PHOTO: DREAMSTIME IMAGES