Hygienic Design-
Why Less is More
Europe has seen strong growth in food processing enterprises over the past 15 years. With advancements in cold chain infrastructure, storage, automation, and foreign investment, the industry has made impressive strides. Yet, amid this progress, one critical factor has often been overlooked- Hygienic Design.
This global shift is driven by growing consumer concerns, internal demands from Quality Control teams, and external pressure from certified auditors. However, these pressures mostly target existing machinery and processes. What about new machinery? And what about the high economic and hygienic cost of maintaining old equipment? Even recently purchased equipment can be a false economy when it comes to hygiene risks.
Food safety incidents are on the rise globally. In countries heavily reliant on processed food, millions fall ill every year, and companies face legal consequences.
How does conveyor belt and conveyor design come into the picture?
Food safety organizations have proliferated mainly since the 1980s with the fear of class actions against mega supermarket chains being a key driver.
Regulatory ordinances have followed and today there is a move to unify the systems to prevent conflicting standards under the Codex Alimentarius and the Global Food Safety Initiative( GFSI), aim to harmonize food safety frameworks and auditing systems.
Recognizing the need for hygienic factory and equipment design, the European Hygienic Engineering Design Group( EHEDG) was founded. Supported by food producers, OEMs, and component manufacturers like Volta Belting Technology Ltd.( e. g. conveyor belting), EHEDG creates design guidelines that reduce contamination risks. Volta has actively contributed to EHEDG for over 12 years, assists in drafting hygienic standards in belting and conveyor designs.
As pathogens evolve and develop resistance to cleaning agents, hygienic design becomes even more essential. EHEDG Guideline 42 highlights thermoplastic belting— particularly monolithic designs— as superior to modular and PU fabric belts in terms of hygiene. These belts reduce bacteria counts and minimize water, chemical use, and cleaning time, resulting in significantly lower costs of ownership.
Volta’ s SuperDrive™ belts support true hygienic design, enabling not just easier cleaning but also transforming older conveyor systems into streamlined, easily cleanable, low-maintenance models. Independent studies show cost savings of up to 55 % with monolithic belts and up to 75 % when used on hygienic design conveyors.
Visit Volta Belting Technology Ltd at PPMA Hall 5 Stand E16 to discover how you can future-proof your operations and benefit today from cutting-edge hygienic solutions.
We invite you to visit us at the PPMA expo in Birmingham
Hall 5 | Stand E16
For more details: www. voltabelting. com
Contact us at: sales @ voltabelting. com