Hygiene upgrades on Compac products

At Compac, our goal is to optimize every finished pack leaving your facility, ensuring the product is presented to the market exactly how you want it, within spec and at the highest possible value. And today, this means accommodating increasingly high standards for food hygiene.

Food safety is a rapidly growing area of interest for the entire fresh produce industry as we grapple with increasing complexity within our supply chains, compliance and regulation from governments. There is also increasing attention from consumers on food safety, security and supply chain integrity.

Taking these factors into account, Compac has established an internal Food Trust team which is focused on understanding the latest market requirements, implementing hygienic design guides, approving hygienic materials, and providing guidelines for cleaning and sanitization.  Within our compac Food Trust Program we are launching Food Trust Upgrade Products that ensure food trust for our customers.

We’re taking practical steps to ensure ‘food trust’ for our customers

The Compac Food Trust Upgrade Products brings together a number of resources under a dedicated Food Safety Program Manager with responsibility for understanding our customers’ requirements, government regulation and compliance across packhouse products and solutions. In addition, the new products future proof new installations and upgrades our existing equipment to meet hygiene requirements.

This appointment supplements our existing work in hygiene and good practice within the packing facility - including direct engagement with the Compac customer base, through to combined food safety research with The University of Auckland (based in New Zealand) on the use of anti-microbial materials.

A major focus of the current generation of Hygienic Upgrades is designing components for easier clean-in-place (CIP) or clean-out-of-place (COP).  These improvements make it far easier and quicker for Compac customers to maintain a hygienic packhouse and meet compliance standards.

What Compac Food Trust involves:

1. Material Selection: Using hygienic materials is a key part of the cleanliness of plant and equipment. Some of these materials include stainless steel, approved plastics, hygienic coatings and hygienic padding, as well as the elimination of non-compliant materials from Compac products.
2. Machine Design: Focusing machine design on good hygiene principles which aid regular cleaning, CIP or COP, improved access for cleaning, elimination of debris and water pooling points, and designing to relevant standards and principles as published by the FDA, 3A, NSF, EHEDG and others.
3. Cleaning & Sanitization Guidelines for Packhouses: Developing guidelines and standardized operating procedures which encourage good hygiene within the packing facility as it relates to Compac products such as cleaning, servicing and consumable parts replacement.

The benefits of the Compac Food Trust Uprade Program:

1. Future proof your packhouse: Installations with hygiene upgrades help to future proof against increasing compliance requirements.
2. Cost are reduced: Products designed under the Food Trust design methodology enable faster and more efficient cleaning and sanitization, reducing costs and enabling greater machine uptime.
3. Equipment is more robust: Materials are specifically selected to withstand the rigors of cleaning and sanitizing.
4. Your brand is protected: Compliance and the ability to demonstrate good hygiene standards protects the brand value and gives growers and consumers confidence.
5. Trust within the supply chain is improved: Retail customers can have confidence that the equipment their suppliers use will keep their customers safe and can see evidence within their supply chain of good practice.