Airchannel takes part in formulating the code of practice for the Food and Beverage Industry

01 Jun 2006

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) in collaboration with British Compressed Air Society (BCAS) have introduced a code of practice in order to minimise the risks from contaminants within compressed air supply, with specific emphasis placed on removing oil contamination during food production.

This code of practice sets out the minimum recommendation for compressed air quality in new installation and defines allowable levels for dirt, water and total oil in line with quality levels specified in ISO 8573.  Where compressed air is used in food production, its use is split into two groups. The outlet compressed air must be specified as one of the following:

• Air that comes into direct contact with the food (contact)
• Air that could come into direct contact with the food (non- contact)

Airchannel was the only UK compressed air distributor represented on the working group formulating the new code of practice, so Airchannel is now in a unique position to advise and assist our customers on all aspects of the code including system design, particularly section 7 of the code, which requires systems to be tested twice a year by qualified personnel with specialised equipment. Airchannel can carry out a complete compressed air system health check and provide a full range of cost effective maintenance programmes which will satisfy the testing requirements of the code.    

The full Code of Practice can be obtained on the following link: http://www.bcas.org.uk/codesOfPractice.asp