News by region

Trends in Food Science & Technology 18 (2007) S116eS119

EHEDG News

News by region

The Netherlands has one of the most long-standing EHEDG sections. Coordinated by Ernst Paardekooper, Jacques Kastelein and Wouter Burggraaf, it was active as early as in the 1990s, organising a chain of seminars and conferences across the country. It reached a point when it was perceived that there was a proliferation of a variety and number of hygienic engineering events in the Netherlands offered by EHEDG and other organisations. Attendance and interest diminished. The alternative was to transcend borders and so they linked up with the Belgian section, headed by Frank Moerman. In 2002, the success of a jointly organised symposium and trade show in Antwerp encouraged further cooperation. Membership in Belgium grew from a handful to over 20 and together the two regions have close to 60 members. Meanwhile, slow progress was made in introducing EHEDG in Wallonia, where issues and interests were quickly recognised to be quite different from those of the northern counterparts. In 2005, the Netherlands group once again started up a series of local symposia and lectures. Among the recent ones was a symposium in Den Bosch in April 2006 in collaboration with IMEFA on the theme ‘‘Innovation Now and Tomorrow’’. Focusing on Processand Food Design, the event attracted experts from different disciplines in the food industry, including the VWA (Dutch Food Safety Authority). The Dutch team have also lent their expertise on specific topics such as: nanotechnology for the Vereniging Contamination Control in Nijmegen, the introduction of the NEN-EN 1672-2, legal aspects and how the EHEDG guidelines can help, given at the Dutch Standards Institute (NNI) and applying hygienic design principles lectures at the New Knowledge Centre of Stainless Steel. 0924-2244/$ - see front matter Ó 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.tifs.2006.12.001

Articles are contributed regularly to publications such as the ‘‘Vleesindustrie’’ and the ‘‘MACHEVO/Industrial Processing’’. New areas of cooperation are being developed such as with the Dutch Society for Food Entrepreneurs (Ondernemings Societeit voor de Voedingssector OSV) to gain a broader perspective in the production of safe products, particularly processed meat and convenience foods, to help reduce food safety incidents. The Royal Dutch Association for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the metal industry are keen to obtain training and support in the design of equipment and installations for food processing, including its maintenance and auxiliary services. A workshop on ‘‘Trends in Food Hygiene and Food Safety’’ is planned for end 2006, together with the Foundation of Food Micro and Innovation. Themes will include generic issues of hygiene manufacturing, implementation of EHEDG Guidelines, novel processes to ensure microbial food safety, decontamination processes for food and surface of processing machinery, process lines and case studies of industrial applications. Guideline Translations. There are currently no valid Dutch translations of the guidelines. Since cooperation with PAVO ended some years ago, the Dutch versions then published are no longer up to date. The Dutch section has undertaken work to produce translations of 10 main documents by early 2007.

EHEDG France was created as a formal association (in accordance with French law of 1901) in October 2005. Prior to that, a questionnaire was distributed to a vast sample of persons directly concerned with the hygienic design of food processing equipment (food producers, equipment suppliers, researchers and teachers of food engineering/technology, etc.) in order to measure their interest regarding EHEDG representation in France. This inquiry revealed, firstly, that EHEDG was not well known,

EHEDG News / Trends in Food Science & Technology 18 (2007) S116eS119

and secondly that most of the respondents wanted to be involved in EHEDG activities. They were also asked whether they favoured a formal or informal structure for the French EHEDG group. The answer was clear: a formal association had to be created. This allows a not-for-profit organisation to clearly divide functional responsibilities while collectively organizing activities on a subject of common interest. A working group was formed in order to define the aims and activities of the French association and its relations with EHEDG International. This group, consisting of 15 members, met every month between June and October 2005, wrote the statutes and became the first steering committee. EHEDG France is hosted by Laval Mayenne Technopole which assumes the secretarial functions. Jean-Pierre Descamps (formerly with Nestle´ and Unilever) was chosen as President. Pascale Guerin, Assistant-Director Quality Management at Lactalis Group, was elected Vice President in charge of international relations, and was subsequently accepted as a member of the EHEDG Executive Committee. EHEDG France was officially launched with a conference at Laval Town hall on January 2006, and a cycle of conferences at the CFIA (trade show of food industry suppliers in Rennes) in March. Its website, www.ehedg.fr, has been online since this period. The aims of this new group are to promote hygienic design in the French food industry (in SMEs particularly), to translate and disseminate the EHEDG guidelines (a goal of 10 documents was fixed for 2006), and to organize working groups on different themes, related to the European ones or other specific subjects. The group is also looking for a new local EHEDG certifying organization. In June, over 30 members have joined the association, and this will, without doubt, increase the dynamics and spur further growth of EHEDG in France. Nicolas Chomel, Laval Mayenne Technopole, EHEDG France Secretary

This section, chaired jointly by Hans-Werner Bellin, VDMA, and Ju¨rgen Hofmann, TU Munich Weihenstephan is the largest regional section within EHEDG with about 90 individual members in mid-2006. Fourteen German companies are members of EHEDG international. In the last few years, annual meetings have been held at the VDMA in Frankfurt or in trade fairs in other parts of the country. In 2005 the German section organized the

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booth at the international fair Drinktec in Munich. Over the 6 days, hundreds of people stopped by and expressed interest in EHEDG, wanting to know more about its aims, the scope of the published guidelines and the possibility to certify equipment. There was an EHEDG symposium on one day of the exhibition. In 2006 a half-day conference was organised at the Anuga FoodTec fair in Cologne on the topic ‘‘dry powder handling in the food industry’’. More than 40 participants listened to presentations of EHEDG company members and active subgroup members. In September 2006 it held a 3-day conference about Hygienic Design at the ‘‘HygieniCon’’ event in Munich. Three parallel sessions held every day stimulated dialogue on hygienic design issues between the participants from the food industry. Training courses in German take place twice a year at the Technical University of Munich in Weihenstephan. This event has been organised for more than 15 years and gives a good overview on the basis of hygienic design. Around 1700 people have undergone this training and in the future, the German section will support more training events using the Training Facilitator developed by EHEDG. Future plans include the production of a newsletter and creation of a new website in German, to provide more detailed information about EHEDG and the work of the German section. An interactive members area will be implemented to get more in touch with the members and to stimulate interaction among them. In 2007, an area of focus is to translate more guidelines into German, particularly the updates of the basic guidelines on hygienic design and test methods. There is a need for a German version of the guidelines based on requests from the industry and educational institutions. One of the EHEDG testing and certification laboratories is located at TUM Weihenstephan. They are able to test equipment according to the EHEDG cleanability test (Doc. 2) on three test rigs, differing in size, so that it can accommodate equipment with a pipe diameter ranging from 10 mm up to 100 mm. With the test results obtained, the equipment manufacturer learns more about the cleanability of special items and is able to give better advice to his customers than would be possible without testing. In addition, equipment may be certified according to the requirements of EHEDG type EL. The institute is accredited to carry out certification on behalf of EHEDG. About 50 pieces of equipment have been certified at that test institute since the introduction of this service in 2001. Germany has the greatest number of food equipment manufacturers in Europe. The German section, therefore, has the responsibility to spread knowledge about hygienic design throughout the industry and to support EHEDG by increasing memberships and activating the subgroups. Ju¨rgen Hofmann, Hans-Werner Bellin, June 2006

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EHEDG News / Trends in Food Science & Technology 18 (2007) S116eS119

Poland joined the European Community in May 2004. To fulfil the requirements for participation, it was acknowledged that huge gaps existed as far as hygienic design of equipment in the food industry was concerned. Set up in June 2000 to address this need, the Polish section had clear objectives: 1. To stimulate hygienic design in production and use of equipment and systems for the manufacture, processing, packaging and distribution of foodstuffs. 2. To promote, through exchange of knowledge/knowhow techniques relating to the hygienic design, and the management of processes, machines/components, factory facilities and maintenance systems. 3. To collect relevant EU Directives, compare these with the Polish Standard and prepare suitable amendments to make the latter compatible with the EU Standards. 4. To develop closer contact between designers, producers, food distributors and 5. To assist Polish companies seeking to comply with EU and EHEDG requirements. Because the seat of the Polish section is at the Gdansk University, dissemination of knowledge within the academia was a primary activity. Promotion of food safety and hygienic manufacturing in the companies concerned was accomplished through workshops by industry sector: meat, dairy, packaging, small breweries, and food transportation systems. The first seminar was organised in 2001 during the ‘‘POLAGRA’’ International Food Fair in Poznan. Known as one of the biggest in Europe, it attracted more than 100 representatives from both the food industry and universities. It was made possible through close cooperation of the Gdansk and Poznan Universities of Technology. At the same event a year later, a workshop on ‘‘European Union Directives Application to the Food Industry Equipment Manufacturing Practice’’ was organised for 35 representatives of leading food manufacturers. Also in 2002, an EHEDG meeting was held during the Mierki conference on ‘‘Food, Packaging, Equipment and Building Surfaces.’’ Meanwhile, study courses have been developed at the Agriculture University of Technology in Bydgoszcz on the subjects of ‘‘Food quality systems in food industry’’, and ‘‘Legal requirements in food production’’. The subject ‘‘Food processing plant design’’ is on offer at both the Gdansk University of Technology and Bydgoszcz Agriculture University of Technology. Tadeusz Matuszek, Gdansk University of Technology

EHEDG ventured south in 2001, when the 11th International Conference was, for the first time, combined with a Training Workshop on hygienic engineering. The 3-day bi-lingual conference on ‘‘Food in Europe: Building in safety’’ was and held in Valencia and organised by AINIA. It attracted more than 200 attendees from European food companies and food equipment manufacturers. To the Spanish participants, it was an eye-opener to the building blocks that support the hygienic foundation of a food production facility. Four years later, at AINIA’s initiative, the Spanish section was formally set up. A range of activities was launched in 2005 in order to promote the requirements of hygiene and EHEDG throughout Spain. The first meeting of the Spanish regional section was held to stimulate interaction among the partners and discuss new activities of the section. A seminar on hygienic design of food equipment and facilities was held in Valencia with the collaboration of experts from Unilever, Kraft and Campden. It had 30 participants from over 25 companies. Another seminar was held in Barcelona in autumn 2006. A new website (www.ainia.es/ehedg) maintaining the original EHEDG website design was developed and the contents were translated into Spanish. From August 05 to July 06, there have been more than 1000 visitors to the site. Another website accessible from the AINIA homepage has been developed with updated and detailed information about the Spanish section. Since it went online in September 2005 to July 2006, this website has received 969 visitors. Ten guidelines have been translated into Spanish (Doc 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 15, 22, 23, and 26) and five more (14, 27, 29, 30, 31) are expected to be available in Spanish in 2007. Different newsletters about EHEDG and hygienic design have been published using two different electronic channels, reaching up to 6000 recipients. At the time of print, there are 10 Spanish members (company and individual members) and more are expected with the sales of the guidelines and training courses in Spanish. The future plans include a 2-day course in February 2007, the publication of more regional newsletters, the translation of more guidelines and improving communication and interaction among the members. To increase the profile of EHEDG, dissemination activities will be continued through training courses, presence in fairs, new publications, and new contacts among food, equipment, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and chemical companies and trade associations. The Spanish regional section is coordinated by Andre´s Pascual,

EHEDG News / Trends in Food Science & Technology 18 (2007) S116eS119

Irene Llorca and Rafael Soro. For more information: [email protected].

EHEDG Nordic was created in 2000 under the initiative of VTT Finland. Through the years, it has organised

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introductory seminars and local conferences in collaboration with institutes and universities (SIK, DTU) to introduce EHEDG. In 2006, efforts will focus on publishing the updated versions of the EHEDG guidelines No 8, 10 and 13 in Finnish and Swedish. A seminar is planned late this year or early 2007 on topics of common interest to R3 and EHEDG. A main objective this year is to arrange one Advance Course on Basic Hygienic Design in the Food Industry in Finnish together with the training and education subgroup. The availability of the guidelines in Scandinavian languages is crucial to the success of the course. Dr Gun Wirtanen, VTT Finland, Chairman EHEDG Nordic