Tag Archives: sanitary design

Allergen Alley

How conveyor design can reduce allergen cross-contact in multi-product food facilities

By Rich Lunden
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Allergen cross-contact remains one of the most urgent safety challenges in food manufacturing. Food allergies can cause severe reactions, including life-threatening anaphylaxis, and even small amounts of an undeclared allergen can be enough to trigger a serious event in a sensitive consumer.¹ ³ Precision stainless steel belts offer a practical answer because their flat, nonporous surface helps prevent allergen residues from being trapped or transferred between product runs. For processors, the consequences reach far beyond one production error. Undeclared allergen incidents can lead to recalls, regulatory action, lost production time and lasting damage to consumer trust.² ³

The urgency is increasing because many processors are managing broader product portfolios, shorter production runs and more frequent changeovers on shared equipment. In a multi-product facility, the risk is straightforward: Residue from one product run can remain on equipment and move into the next product if the system is not designed and cleaned effectively. FDA has specifically identified shared food-processing equipment as a source of allergen cross-contact, and it requires manufacturers to implement controls that significantly minimize or prevent that hazard.³ ⁴

That makes conveyor design a food safety issue, not just a mechanical decision. Conveyors are present at nearly every stage of production. They move ingredients, intermediate product and finished goods through processing, cooling, inspection and packaging. When the belt surface traps residue, requires lubrication or sheds particles, the conveyor can become a persistent source of allergen carryover. When the system is designed for cleanability and stable operation, it can help processors reduce that risk while maintaining efficiency.

Why allergen control deserves more attention now

Food manufacturers have always had to manage allergens carefully, but the current operating environment raises the stakes. Product variety has expanded across many categories. More facilities are running allergen-containing and allergen-free products on the same lines. Changeovers are happening more often, and every changeover creates another opportunity for allergen residue to remain behind.

That matters because the people affected by these failures are not dealing with a minor quality issue. They are dealing with a potential life-safety event. FDA notes that exposure to food allergens poses a risk for potentially severe and life-threatening reactions, and that undeclared food allergens remain a leading cause of food product recalls.³ For processors, that means allergen control has to be treated as a core part of operational design, verification and daily execution.

Sanitation programs remain essential, but sanitation alone is not enough if the equipment works against the process. Cleaning teams can only remove what they can access. Validation becomes more difficult when the product-contact surface contains pores, seams, cracks, worn areas or places where product dust can collect. Equipment design determines how difficult the cleaning task will be before a sanitation crew starts.

Why conveyor design matters in allergen prevention

FDA’s preventive controls framework makes clear that food allergen controls and sanitation controls are written procedures facilities must have and implement to control allergen cross-contact and maintain sanitary conditions that minimize food allergen hazards.⁴ In practical terms, that means processors need equipment that supports those procedures under real production conditions.

A conveyor belt sits directly in the product zone. Its surface condition affects how much residue remains after discharge, how easily cleaning crews can remove what remains and how consistently the line can be returned to a validated state for the next run. The conveyor’s surrounding design matters too. Transfer points, supports, return paths, pulley areas and frame geometry can all create places where small food particles, oils or sticky product films collect.

FDA’s draft food allergen program guidance tells manufacturers to consider how current good manufacturing practice measures prevent allergen cross-contact due to plant design, sanitary operations, equipment and utensils, ingredients and manufacturing operations. That guidance also recommends incorporating design features that minimize the potential for allergen cross-contact and facilitate cleaning of equipment.⁵

How residue remains on conventional conveying surfaces

Residue can remain after a product run in ways that are easy to underestimate. Powders settle in worn or irregular surfaces. Small food particles gather at edges and transfer points. Oily ingredients cling to rough contact areas. Sticky products leave thin films behind that are not always visible during routine inspection. In a shared-line environment, even a small amount of material left on the conveyor can become the source of an undeclared allergen in the next batch.

Surface stability matters as much as surface cleanability. A belt that degrades over time becomes harder to clean because use and sanitation change the condition of the material. Tiny defects can turn into retention points. Once that happens, the sanitation process becomes less repeatable, and allergen verification becomes more difficult.

Lubrication can add another concern. In food production, any substance introduced near the product zone deserves close scrutiny. Lubrication points can attract product dust and create more areas where allergen residue accumulates. They can also complicate cleaning and inspection.

Particle shedding is another issue that is often treated as a maintenance problem when it should also be viewed as a hygiene concern. If a conveying surface frays, flakes or sheds particles, those particles can introduce contaminants into the product zone and carry residue into adjacent areas.

Why precision stainless steel belts help reduce cross-contact

Precision stainless steel belts, including PureSteel® metal belts, provide a flat, nonporous product-contact surface. That surface does not absorb product residue and does not present the same types of harborage points created by more irregular or degradable materials. Powders, oils and small food particles are less likely to become embedded in the belt surface, which helps reduce carryover between product runs.

They also do not require lubrication. That simplifies sanitation and removes one more place where residue can accumulate. In facilities where changeovers are frequent, that can improve cleaning consistency and reduce the time needed to prepare the line for the next product.

Precision stainless steel belts will not fray and shed particles in the way some other belt materials can. Their resistance to corrosion is equally important. FDA guidance emphasizes cleaning procedures tailored to both residue type and food-contact surface.⁵ A corrosion-resistant stainless steel belt helps processors maintain a stable surface through repeated exposure to water, detergents and sanitation chemistry, supporting thorough, repeatable cleaning over time.

In addition, these belts provide high positional accuracy and consistent tracking. That precision reduces product movement variability, limiting spillover and buildup along conveyor edges or transfer points. Less residual material during production means less to remove during sanitation.

The role of wire mesh belts in hygienic conveyor design

Wire mesh conveyor belts are another proven option for food processors focused on sanitation and contamination control. Constructed from stainless steel, they provide a nonporous surface that resists bacterial growth and maintains structural integrity under demanding conditions such as high-temperature baking or freezing operations.

One of the defining advantages of wire mesh belts is their open design. The mesh allows for airflow and drainage, which is critical in processes that involve cooling, drying or washing. This openness helps prevent debris accumulation and supports more effective cleaning, particularly when using clean-in-place systems.

Wire mesh belts are also highly durable and resistant to corrosion from moisture and cleaning agents. Their design allows for efficient washdowns with reduced water and chemical usage, supporting both sanitation goals and operational efficiency. Many designs also allow for straightforward repair through splicing, which can extend service life without compromising hygienic performance.

From a compliance standpoint, stainless steel wire mesh belts can meet FDA and USDA requirements for direct food contact when properly specified and maintained. Their ability to withstand aggressive sanitation protocols without degradation makes them a practical solution in facilities with strict hygiene requirements.

Choosing between solid stainless steel and wire mesh belts

While both precision stainless steel belts and wire mesh belts support hygienic conveying, their strengths align with different application requirements.

Solid stainless steel belts are best suited for applications that demand maximum surface control. Their flat, continuous surface eliminates openings where product particles could fall through or become trapped. This makes them particularly effective in allergen-sensitive environments where preventing any residue carryover is critical. They also deliver superior positional accuracy, making them ideal for indexing, inspection and automated processes where precision matters.

Wire mesh belts, by contrast, are defined by their openness. That design allows air, liquids and heat to pass through the belt, making them well suited for baking, frying, freezing and drying processes. The open structure reduces contact area and promotes faster cooling or drainage, which can be essential for certain food products.

There are also practical considerations related to system design.  Wire mesh belts can be produced in very wide formats, which is beneficial for large-scale processing lines. Solid stainless steel belts are typically selected when precision and surface integrity outweigh the need for openness.

In allergen control specifically, the choice often depends on how residue behaves in the process. If the priority is preventing any product from becoming lodged or retained, a solid stainless steel belt provides a clear advantage. If the process benefits from airflow and wash-through cleaning, a wire mesh belt may offer better performance.

Cleanability and efficiency are connected

In a multi-product facility, allergen control and line efficiency are closely linked. Equipment that is difficult to clean extends downtime, increases labor demands and adds uncertainty during verification. Equipment designed for cleanability helps teams complete sanitation more thoroughly and restart production with greater confidence.

Conveyor performance during production also affects what sanitation teams face afterward. A belt that runs flat and tracks accurately is less likely to create unnecessary spillover, edge buildup or product agitation. Less residue around the conveyor path means less material to remove during changeover.

This is where equipment choice becomes part of a broader allergen management strategy. A processor still needs training, production scheduling, sanitation validation and verification. But the conveyor system should support those controls, not make them harder to execute.

What processors should look for

When evaluating conveyors for allergen-sensitive production, processors should ask direct questions:

  • Is the product-contact surface flat, nonporous and easy to sanitize?
  • Does the system avoid lubrication in the product zone?
  • Will the belt maintain its surface integrity after repeated sanitation cycles?
  • Are transfer points and surrounding components accessible for inspection and cleaning?
  • Does the conveyor design minimize places where small food particles can collect during normal production?
  • Does the belt type align with process needs such as airflow, drainage or precision handling?

These questions shift the discussion from simple equipment selection to risk reduction.

Conclusion

Allergen cross-contact is not just a compliance issue. It is a consumer safety issue with potentially severe consequences. Conveyor design plays a direct role in controlling that risk.

Precision stainless steel belts such as PureSteel® provide a flat, stable, nonporous surface that supports consistent sanitation and minimizes residue carryover. Wire mesh belts offer complementary advantages through their open design, enabling airflow, drainage and efficient cleaning in the right applications.

For multi-product food facilities, selecting the appropriate conveyor system is a practical step toward stronger allergen control and more reliable operations. The right choice depends on process requirements, but in all cases, the goal remains the same: reduce contamination risk while maintaining efficient, repeatable production.

References

  1. S. Food and Drug Administration. Food Allergies: What You Need to Know. Aug. 16, 2024.
  2. S. Food and Drug Administration. Food Allergies. Updated March 11, 2026.
  3. S. Food and Drug Administration. The Current Food Allergen Landscape. May 5, 2021.
  4. S. Food and Drug Administration. FSMA Final Rule for Preventive Controls for Human Food. Jan. 6, 2025.
  5. S. Food and Drug Administration. Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food: Draft Guidance for Industry, Chapter 11: Food Allergen Program. Draft guidance.

 

Barry Whitman

Conveying Equipment Plays a Vital Role in Food Safety

By Barry Whitman
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Barry Whitman

A processing plant’s conveyors touch food at every point of production, from receiving to packaging to before and after critical processing stages including slicing, thawing, pasteurizing and cooking. Today’s food-grade sanitary conveyors are built to protect the spread of bacterial contamination that can cause foodborne illness. But what do sanitary conveyors do, and how do they contribute to food processing plant safety?

How Sanitary Conveyors Work

Conveyors move ingredients and products between processing stages in any production plant. They ensure the different plant applications are integrated into a single process and automate handling challenges such as lifting, lowering or reorienting product for further processing.

In food manufacturing, conveyors are critical as they allow large amounts of product to be processed quickly and efficiently, but they also perform another crucial function: ensuring food safety. Conveyor equipment must maintain the same food hygiene standards as the rest of the plant.

Sanitary Conveyors and Food Safety

Bacterial contamination is the most serious threat to food safety when consumable products are handled in bulk. Harmful bacteria can proliferate when food becomes trapped or equipment is improperly sanitized and can spread quickly through any exposed product.

Food-grade conveyor equipment is designed to avoid contamination of products. Modern conveyor food processing systems include food-safe components and special features designed to maintain hygiene to prevent dangerous bacteria from contaminating products and limit their ability to spread.

Sanitary conveyor equipment also helps protect products by:

  • Limiting the time food is exposed to potential contamination
  • Combining and reducing processing steps to minimize handling
  • Matching handling techniques to specific products

Today, food-grade conveyors provide effective sanitary control while offering a full range of handling solutions that can be customized to the needs of a product or the constraints of a production space. These include:

  • Belt conveyors for flexible, seamless line integrations
  • Bucket and incline conveyors for raising product in motion
  • Tote dumpers for safe, efficient bulk handling
  • Horizontal motion conveyors for loose or granular products
  • Vibratory conveyors for cooked foods

Food Contamination Costs Brands Millions

Food-safe solutions designed with a manufacturer’s product and processes in mind are critical when considering the true cost of a food safety failure or product recall.

The CDC estimates that sicknesses caused by foodborne pathogens affect 48 million Americans yearly, with up to 128,000 people hospitalized with bacterial pathogens such as campylobacter, listeria, salmonella, and E. coli. Increasingly sophisticated industry monitoring means manufacturers are subject to ever-higher hygiene standards and more sophisticated contamination tracing techniques.

Today, even a limited product recall can cost a brand up to $10 million. The cost of downtime and lost product of a complete line shutdown to deep clean, sanitize and test equipment can be far higher. In addition, the indirect costs to a business can be challenging to measure but are just as real. These can include:

  • Damage to the brand
  • Damage to the company’s reputation
  • Loss of public confidence in the product category
  • Loss of key staff
  • Lower workforce morale

Today’s Food Safety Standards

To minimize the risk to consumers and the food system as a whole, regulators and industry groups require food processing equipment, including sanitary conveyors, to meet a wide range of standards. Common standards in the U.S. today include:

Compliance with these standards is enforced by regular equipment inspections and testing. Typically, any food-exposed surface must pass a rigorous surface-swab test to meet sanitary requirements.

Safety standards are also constantly improving. For example, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act is being rolled out and will raise standards significantly in several sectors.

Ensuring Food Safety with Sanitary Conveyors

How does today’s food-grade conveying equipment help protect food safety? Here are four examples:

Minimize handling. Perhaps the biggest contribution conveyors make to food safety is minimizing the amount of physical handling products receive. Reducing the need for human contact with food significantly reduces the risk of contamination. Because different types of conveyors can move, raise, lower and change the direction of travel, the need for human handling of food is often eliminated. Some equipment, such as horizontal motion conveyors, can even slow down or reverse direction to allow parts to be cleaned or replaced without stopping the line.

Match technology to process. Choosing the suitable conveyor for a product or process is critical to maintaining a consistent level of hygiene. For example, vibratory conveyors are best for preventing the sticking of cooked food, while horizontal motion conveyors keep frozen product like seafood moving. Experienced equipment providers can help match conveyor equipment to the manufacturer’s specific needs.

Vibratory conveyor belt
Vibratory conveyors help prevent cooked food from sticking to the conveyor.

Use sanitary materials. The best food-grade conveyor equipment is made from high-quality, hygienic materials. To minimize the risk of contamination, any surface that comes into contact with food must be:

  • Smooth and free of cracks, crevices or dents
  • Nonporous and nonabsorbent
  • Non-reactive to food products
  • Corrosion resistant
  • Require little or no maintenance to maintain these characteristics. (This applies particularly to painted, coated or electroplated surfaces. There should never be any flaking, bubbling or chipping of food-exposed surfaces.)

To preserve hygiene, most leading brand manufacturers of sanitary conveyors choose either FDA-approved food-grade plastics for belting or bucket systems and a range of metals for contact surfaces, depending on the application.

While a range of metals might be appropriate for applications handling dry materials such as hard candy or pasta, processors handling dairy and meat products must meet much tighter sanitary standards. In these sectors, true food-grade stainless steel is preferred for its naturally antimicrobial properties and resistance to high-temperature washdown, pasteurization and sterilization procedures.

Designed for safety. The design of professional-grade food conveying equipment takes sanitation into consideration. Today’s systems include minimal moving parts. Keeping the design of machinery simple has several benefits, including:

  • Makes it easier to clean, maintain and sanitize
  • Reduces wear and tear to minimize downtime and maintenance calls
  • Fewer connections and other potential contamination points
  • Key components are easier to access for cleaning and maintenance
  • Simplifies sanitation and validation processes

Simpler equipment also enables the toolless replacement of key components, reducing the likelihood of damage or contamination of a production line by non-sterile maintenance tools.

In addition, newer conveyor systems offer active water and condensation management, which minimizes moisture accumulation and actively manages liquids released by cooking, draining and dewatering. These systems feature:

  • Angled surfaces
  • Tilted or grooved belts and conveyor surfaces
  • Self-draining piping systems

Food processors should look for features that minimize water ingress between components for equipment exposed to high-temperature washdown and sterilization processes, such as conveyors handling dairy or raw meat products. Look for:

  • Solid stainless steel tubing
  • Minimal unwelded joints, crevices or fasteners
  • IP69K compliance: the top industry standard for limiting water ingress between parts

Simple design, premium materials and quality construction all help to minimize food-exposed places where bacteria can build up. They also make it easier to swab-test and validate equipment. Features include:

  • Properly designed and installed fasteners
  • Tight, overlapping joints and connections
  • Smooth, polished welds and well-milled contact surfaces
  • Radiused corners without welds

In addition, look beyond direct contact surfaces when checking for harboring opportunities. Look carefully at the top edges and contact points with coverings or lids where moisture or waste could accumulate.

Value-Added Sanitary Conveying

Value-added technologies or features processors should consider when choosing conveying equipment include:

Combining/Eliminating Processes. Advanced equipment such as vibratory conveyors offer value-added processing that allows product to be laned, spread, dewatered or reoriented while in motion, providing the ability to combine or eliminate processes that were previously separate steps. Fewer steps mean less handling or exposure time for vulnerable materials like sliced fresh produce, raw meats or cheeses.

Improved Quality Control. Variable-speed horizontal motion conveyors allow finished products to be more easily inspected on moving trays before final packaging, enhancing the output quality and allowing more opportunities to spot substandard product.

Clean-in-Place. Premium conveying equipment is generally customized for specific applications and may include features such as clean-in-place equipment. This allows food-exposed surfaces to be cleaned or to self-clean while the machine is still operating.

Value-added equipment such as belt scrapers, flip-down guarding, belt lifts and quick-release take-ups minimize hands-on maintenance, helping to ensure sanitary conditions for longer periods of time.

Ensuring food safety is a top priority for processors, and sanitary conveying equipment plays a role in protecting both the processor and the consumer. Choosing high-quality equipment that fits into a plant’s design and set up and is easy to clean and sanitize helps create trust in brands while also impacting the bottom line.

Stacy Vernon

Lessons Learned from Listeria Recalls

By Food Safety Tech Staff
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Stacy Vernon

Listeria monocytogenes continues to be a key factor in food recalls. While it is not the most common pathogen behind foodborne illness, it does have a high mortality rate. Listeria is hearty. It thrives in cold, moist environments, can grow under refrigeration temperatures and is salt tolerant. The risk of listeria contamination can be reduced through stringent sanitation, and environmental monitoring and testing. But far too often, it takes an outbreak or recall for companies to truly understand the efforts needed to find and destroy it in their facilities.

At Food Safety Tech’s Hazards Conference in Columbus, Ohio, in April, Stacy Vernon, Food Safety Operations and Program Manager at CIFT, an Ohio Manufacturing Partner, shared lessons learned from food companies that have experienced Listeria in their facilities and resulting product recalls.

Lesson Learned: Regulatory Requirements

The regulatory requirements related control of listeria monocytogenes can be found at USDA 9 CFR Part 430.4 and FDA 21 CFR Part 117. Both agencies offer guidance documents that serve as valuable resources that food companies can use to build their food safety programs:

USDA FSIS: FSIS-GD-2014-0001 “Controlling Listeria monocytogenes in Post-lethality Exposed Ready-to-Eat Meat and Poultry Products”

FDA: FDA-2008-D-0096 “Control of Listeria monocytogenes in Ready-to-Eat Foods”

“The question is, are your people reading these? Are they aware they exist?” asked Vernon. “In speaking with companies who have gone through recalls, many were not even aware these guidance documents existed or were not utilizing them.”

Lesson Learned: Sanitation Program Shortcomings

“Sanitation is the No. 1 program that you need to have on point,” said Vernon. “Unfortunately, labor shortages and turnover have made this a big challenge in recent years.”

Issues that companies uncovered following recalls include:

  • A lack of understanding of the difference between cleaning and sanitizing
  • Sanitation teams not given enough time to properly sanitize equipment
  • Lack of easy access to the tools needed to sanitize properly
  • Lack of training on or understanding of the seven steps of sanitation
  • Lack of training on what biofilms are and how to detect them

“Sanitation teams tend to be small, and they need to be everywhere,” said Vernon. “Are you looking at their foot traffic? Your sanitation team should get, at least, general training on food safety and pathogens. Make sure this department is not overlooked because they do pose one of the highest risks of cross contamination.”

Lesson Learned: Poor Sanitary Design

Companies cited similar shortcomings in sanitary design. Vernon recommended that companies implement the following practices, if they are not currently following them:

  • Involve your food safety professionals in the purchase of new equipment
  • If purchasing used equipment, make sure that it has been maintained
  • Google “Sanitary Design Checklist.” These free downloads are available from the American Meat Institute, U.S. Dairy and other organizations and are great resources
  • Look for facility and equipment design flaws, such as cracks or separations in the floor, exposed threads, hallow pipes not sealed, bad welds, and water/product accumulation points

“Drain maintenance is also key. One company uses a snake to swab their drains, so they know if they have listeria before it works its way back up into the facility,” said Vernon.

Lesson Learned: Poor Environmental Monitoring Programs

The goals of an environmental monitoring program (EMP) is to aggressively seek and destroy pathogens. “You need to know where listeria is entering the facility, where it harbors and how it moves in your facility so you can effectively eradicate it,” said Vernon. “There is still a mentality that people are scared to find it, so they swab the safest areas. We need to change that mindset to ‘I want to find it and I want to eliminate it.’”

EMPs need to be tailored to your specific facility. Some of the issues companies found with their EMPs following recalls included a lack of internal knowledge to build a comprehensive and custom program and failure to swab properly. “Ask yourself, who is responsible for setting up our EMP and can they do it alone, or do we need outside expertise?” said Vernon.

When swabbing, you need to apply pressure and seek out hard to reach areas. When determining which zones to swab, consider the following:

  • Your risk assessment and hazard analysis
  • Previous environmental monitoring data collected
  • Visual appearance of surface
  • Products produced and intended users
  • Potential for growth after packaging

“Focus on areas where RTE products are exposed. Companies often do not want to swab Zone 1, but one company that went through a recall has implemented swabbing in Zone 1 while they are sampling their products,” said Vernon. “Their reasoning is, the products are already on hold and if they have to throw one shift of product away, it costs much less than a recall or outbreak.”

Lesson Learned: Lack of Employee Knowledge

Several of the companies Vernon spoke with found that they had inadequate food safety and pathogen training and knowledge at all levels; and that they did not have a good sense of employee traffic flow and habits. “When is the last time you stepped back to evaluate traffic flow in your facility?” asked Vernon. “Companies that took the time to evaluate traffic flow and employee practices were often surprised that they did not understand their employees’ movement within the facility or work habits.”

Key areas to investigate include:

  • How do employees and product move through your facility?
  • What is your footwear policy?
  • Are employees following appropriate GMPs for handwashing, PPE, product handling, etc.?
  • Are sanitation employees cleaning properly?

“Changing employee practices doesn’t take a lot of capital,” said Vernon. “It is one of the cheapest ways to mitigate risk.”

Lesson Learned: Not Reassessing Programs

EMP and sanitation programs should be reassessed when findings occur or changes happen in the facility, including anytime you bring in new equipment. “Start with a document review and then reassessment of your environmental monitoring program,” said Vernon.