Food Contact Surfaces, Risk of Contamination, and Solution

Food contact surfaces come in contact with raw, processed, and finished products while processing any food products. The incorrect material selection and design for equipment construction, as well as inappropriate cleaning procedures for installed equipment, can become a gateway to microbes from raw materials or other sources. These microbes can further cross-contaminate the food product during processing. Therefore, it becomes critical to achieve sanitation standards to meet the regulative criteria on the quality assurance systems and verify their implementation as a means of regulatory compliance. Efforts have been made in recent decades to develop standards and guidelines on sanitary aspects of food contact materials at the federal and international level (viz. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, European Union, ISO, 3-A sanitary standards Inc., European Hygienic and Design Group, National Sanitation Foundation International) to minimize food safety hazards. The premier goal of these standards and guidelines is to protect consumer health and sanitary food quality. Though, the global existence of regulatory requirements may incite technical barricades to trade. Henceforth, simultaneous, and mutual recognition of legislation between nations are considered substantive future objectives. In this chapter, the conventional and trending approaches have also been discussed with respect to potential advantages and concerns associated with reaching food contact surface sanitation.