Don’t Let Contamination Send Food Safety Down the Tube

In the Sanitation Wars, the best strategy is to deny the battlefield to the enemy. Bacteria will take every opportunity to hide in any nook and cranny available to them in a food packaging system. This includes places that are supposedly sealed off. That is why many food packaging organizations are moving away from tubular legs to formed channel construction. Led by the most sanitation-sensitive food packaging industries (meat, poultry and cheese), producers of baked goods, confectioneries, snack products and other food items are seeing the advantages of formed channel legs and are changing the way they support their conveyors.

Tubes Are Vulnerable
All it takes is one tiny crack and contamination will gain a foothold, multiply and then migrate back onto the belts and rollers of a conveyor system. Aside from the initial construction, tubes are convenient places to mount ancillary devices after installation. Any holes drilled into the tube destroy its integrity for sanitation purposes. In essence, the compromised structure becomes part of the problem by turning into a giant petri dish. While it is easy to clean the exterior, the inside walls of the tube are almost impossible to sanitize. Bacteria and other small contaminants can get in (and out), but sanitation fluids and cleaning tools can’t.

Sanitation Comes First
As food equipment manufacturers, we are always looking for ways to help our customers reduce the risk of contamination in their products. Food handling equipment that is conceived with a sanitation mindset from the beginning helps food packaging companies minimize that risk. We do this by creating an initial design that eliminates hiding places for contamination as well as building in features that facilitate cleaning operations.

Our formed channel leg designs have no hidden crevices where contamination can lurk. Every portion of the surface area is exposed to sanitation solutions, brushes and other cleaning tools. Even the threaded rod for level mounts or castors are fully exposed for washing. Where there are formed corners, we’ve integrated holes to drain the entire structure.

If you’re performing washdowns on a daily basis, formed channels are definitely our expert recommendation to maintain a clean and sanitary facility.

If you would like more information about how our formed channels conveyor legs will help you maintain your record for food product safety, please contact us.