Food-and-Beverage Pump Quick Facts

All pumps in food-and-beverage processing applications should meet the minimum Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Washington, requirements for materials of construction (fda.gov). Depending on the application, process use, and local plant sanitary guidelines, pumps may also have to meet 3-A Sanitary Standards (McLean, VA, 3-a.org) approval. On this page is a collection of facts and source information related to food-and-beverage pumping.

Food & Beverage Pumps Toolbox

This list contains the basic tools needed to maintain food-and-beverage processing pumps:

• backstops
• motor thermostats
• run-dry and dead-head protection
• detailed equipment specifications (one size does not fit all)
• temperature gauges
• electronic thermometer
• variable-frequency drives
• variable-speed drives
• sprag (to ensure proper rotation)
• tachometer
• inductive tachometer
• tape for shafts with reflective strip to read temperatures
• cleaning chemicals.

Hygiene & Safety Standards

The hygiene and safety standards in the food-and-beverage industry have risen sharply in recent years. Pumps are used in almost all product processes and need to meet increased requirements for:

• gentle handling, cleaning, and sterilization
• absolute hygiene in all processes
• operational safety, ease of maintenance.

Source: SEEPEX.com

3-A Sanitary Standards

3-A SSI, McLean, VA, is an independent, not-for-profit corporation dedicated to advancing hygienic equipment design for the food, beverage, and pharmaceutical industries. It represents the interests of regulatory sanitarians, equipment fabricators, and processors, three stakeholder groups with a common commitment to promoting food safety and the public health.

Today, 3-A SSI is an independent corporation dedicated to education and promoting food safety through hygienic equipment design in the rapidly changing food, beverage, and pharmaceutical industries.

Source: 3-a.org

FDA’s FSMA

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the most sweeping reform of food-safety laws in more than 70 years, was signed into law by President Barack Obama on January 4, 2011. It aims to ensure the U.S. food supply is safe by shifting the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it.

The public-health imperative:

• Foodborne illness affects 48 million (1 in 6) Americans each year, hospitalizing 128,000 and killing 3,000.
• Immune-compromised individuals (infants and children, pregnant women, elderly, those on chemotherapy) are most susceptible.
• Foodborne illness is not just a stomach ache. It can cause life-long chronic disease, such as arthritis and kidney failure.

Why the law was needed:

• Globalization has resulted in importing 15% of the U.S. food supply.
• The food supply is more high-tech and complex with more foods in the marketplace and the introduction of previously unseen hazards.
• About 30% of the population is especially at risk for foodborne illness.

Impact of the law

• Creates a new food-safety system
• Broadens the prevention mandate and accountability
• Installs a new system of import oversight
• Emphasizes partnerships
• Emphasizes farm-to-table responsibility.

Source: fda.gov

Food-and-Beverage Pumps Market

In a recent report, Transparency Market Research (TMR), Albany, NY, estimates that the size of the global positive-displacement (PD) sanitary pumps market was $4.55 billion in 2015. TMR expects the market to expand at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 10.1% from 2016 to 2024 and rise to a valuation of $10.65 billion by 2024. In terms of the varieties of rotary PD sanitary pumps available in the market, gear pumps accounted for more than 32% of 2015 market revenues in 2015.

(Source here.)

The EHEDG

The European Hygienic Engineering & Design Group (EHEDG.org), Frankfurt, Germany, is a consortium of equipment manufacturers, food industries, research institutes, and public health authorities, headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. It was founded in 1989 to promote hygiene during the processing and packing of food products by improving hygienic engineering and design in all aspects of food manufacture.