Advantage Good Agricultural Practices Manual

3.2 Equipment Design, Construction and Installation

Equipment that is improperly designed, constructed or installed may create and/or result in contamination of food.

This Good Agricultural Practice applies to:

Farms that have equipment that comes into contact with milk, eggs, honey, fruit or vegetables.

What needs to be done

To protect the safety of food, livestock and poultry, equipment maintenance and calibration practices must be performed at the required frequency and according to the equipment manufacturer's specifications.

How to do it

• Make sure equipment is suitable for its intended use.
• Make sure equipment is designed and installed for easy cleaning,? sanitizing, service and maintenance.
• When designing, constructing or installing equipment, ask your suppliers for appropriate materials, or refer to:
  "Reference Listing of Accepted Construction Materials, Packaging Materials and Non-Food Chemical Products" (Canadian Food Inspection Agency)
  

Other considerations

• Make sure food contact surfaces are made from materials that are smooth and non-absorbent to promote effective washing, cleaning and drying.
• Use materials that are non-toxic to food. For example, chemicals seeping from plastic or lead leaching from lead solder can contaminate food.
• Make sure equipment is durable in order to reduce physical hazards (e.g. metal fragments falling off the equipment).
• Make sure equipment is durable in order to reduce physical hazards (e.g. metal fragments falling off the equipment).
  

Did you know?

Some chemicals used to treat wood (e.g. pentachlorophenol (PCP) and chromated copper arsenate) can be toxic to humans and may contaminate food and animals. Therefore, treated wood should not be used for equipment construction.

If you need an audit

Be prepared for the auditor to:

• Observe the equipment design, construction and installation
  

Laws and regulations that apply

There are few laws that impact on food safety requiring specific equipment design, construction and installation in agricultural production. Generally, these requirements are laid out in laws regarding the processing of meat, fish and other food products, including egg-grading stations, which are outside the scope of this document.

The Milk Act, R.R.O. 1990, Reg. 761, s. 12 sets out specifications for a milkhouse, including location, space, floor, drains, walls, lighting, doors, screens, insulation to prevent condensation, ventilation, sinks, hot and cold potable water, water hose, milk hose transfer-port, and number of bulk tanks. No producer of goat's milk may have more than two farm bulk tanks. S. 13 (4) specifies equipment and materials necessary to clean, rinse and sanitize milking equipment and utensils. S. 13 (5) specifies material restrictions for milking equipment and utensils (e.g. must not have rough surfaces that cannot be easily cleaned). S. 14-16, 18 (9) and 19-30 provide detailed building location, materials and other specifications for the bulk tank and the requirements for its use (e.g. parts of the bulk tank that contact milk must be made of stainless steel). All exterior seams of the outer shell of a farm bulk tank shall be sealed against moisture and vermin (s. 22 (5).

Proceed to 4.1 Water Quality