By Saint-Gobain

Saint-Gobain’s Tygon tubing solutions are said to minimize the potential for bacterial growth and to promote a sanitary fluid path through a non-porous inner surface. This feature prevents particle entrapment while imparting no taste or odor of its own to ensure product flavor consistency.

Preventative controls regulations set by the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) will be put into effect by July 2012, enabling the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to achieve greater oversight of products exported to the United States. More than ever, food and beverage processors across the globe will be held accountable for the safety of consumables as they travel through the entire supply chain. To ensure compliance, these manufacturers must implement written preventative control plans regarding potential hazards that could affect food safety and verify that suppliers - both foreign and domestic - have similar controls in place.

To help players in the food and beverage industries ensure that all food safety criteria are being met, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics (SGPPL) offers a variety of safe and high-performance solutions for product transfer and dispensing.  Designed to help companies reduce total systems costs and minimize downtime, SGPPL's solutions also meet stringent food regulatory standards to help food processors ensure compliance.

Promoting Sanitary Fluid Paths

Food and beverage manufacturers require dependable safety performance in numerous filling, draining, transfer and processing applications. In these applications, tubing that lacks clarity can inhibit proper visual inspection, allowing blockages to go unnoticed. Additionally, tubing that is porous could endanger product integrity through exposure to bacteria or other pathogens.

To prevent these scenarios, SGPPL offers its advanced line of Tygon®-branded tubing solutions, which minimize the potential for bacterial growth and promote a sanitary fluid path through a non-porous inner surface. This feature prevents particle entrapment while imparting no taste or odor of its own to ensure product flavor consistency.

Several Tygon®-branded tubing solutions offer complete clarity for easy visual inspection. They also exhibit high levels of durability and chemical resistance amid extreme temperatures, corrosion, abrasion and varying pressures. All together, these qualities help to reduce operational downtime and improve long-term cost savings.

Faster Cleaning Fittings Cut Downtime and Costs

Ensuring product safety does not have to compromise the productivity of a food and beverage processing operation. SGPPL's ReSeal® fittings can be used in all stages of the liquid transfer process and feature a threaded insert fixed inside a stainless steel sleeve. This unique design enables the fittings to be removed and reattached multiple times to replacement hoses without the additional cost of purchasing new fittings - contrary to standard crimped fittings which must be discarded with the replacement of each hose. ReSeal® fittings offer considerable savings on standard replacement costs, shaving expenses up to 80 percent over time.

SGPPL's ReSeal® fittings feature a full flow smooth bore and compression seal design to prevent inner-surface obstructions, eliminating opportunities for bacteria and other contaminants to latch on. The patented O-ring design protects the point where the stem and sleeve join, ensuring that when the assembly is washed down, no particles can be trapped in either the hose or fitting. ReSeal® fittings are classified as completely sanitary and the connections have achieved 3-A Sanitary Standard approval.

Functional Food Safety

Food and beverage manufacturing components need to ensure product safety while functioning in the context of a given facility. For example, foot traffic and industrial vehicles, such as forklifts, can take their toll on hoses that run product from the manufacturing line to storage containers or transportation vehicles. Damage to these connections can compromise product safety, potentially costing processors thousands of dollars in expenses related to product waste and the downtime required for cleanup. SGPPL's crush-resistant Gladiator® hoses are rated for high-pressures to help manufacturers mitigate these risks.

Hose flexibility is another consideration. Hoses transferring product will rarely run in a straight line and require the flexibility to promote fluidity regardless of configuration. The reinforced fabric spiral and wire helix design of SGPPL's SaniGard® Protector® PSD Suction and Discharge Rubber Hose solutions offer exceptional flexibility.

"Food safety is and always will be on the front burner for food and beverage manufacturers," said Damien Canac, Global Marketing Manager, Food & Beverages, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Process Systems business unit. "As FSMA and other legislation dictates changes to current standards and reporting structures, SGPPL will continue to offer solutions that help processors guarantee their facilities meet and exceed the expectations of the industry - and most importantly - the end-use consumers."

Food and beverage processors interested in learning how partnering with SGPPL experts can deliver customized solutions that meet their precise needs, applications specifications, and regulatory requirements can contact:

About Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics

Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics (SGPPL) is a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain Corporation, one of the top 100 industrial companies in the world and a leading producer of construction products, flat glass, high-performance materials and packaging. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics produces critical connections through a broad range of customized material solutions and capabilities to help customers achieve safety, performance and brand assurance in the aerospace, chemical and food & beverage industries.

SOURCE: Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics