FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 4, 2009
Email: trugh@3-a.org
Under revision since 2003, this 3-A Accepted Practice establishes minimum sanitary (hygienic) requirements for design, materials, fabrication, and installation of crossflow membrane processing systems. It pertains to the sanitary aspects of equipment necessary for crossflow membrane processing of milk, milk products, and their fractions. These processes include ultrafiltration, diafiltration, microfiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis. The system begins at the product inlet to the supply tank which delivers the liquid product to the membrane equipment and, if diafiltration is used, at the outlet of the nearest valve which delivers water for diafiltration. The system terminates at the connections on the membrane equipment where concentrate and permeate leave the membrane equipment for storage or further processing. This 3-A Accepted Practice does not cover materials and fabrication of membrane modules. Membrane modules are covered under 3-A Sanitary Standard for Crossflow Membrane Modules, Number 45- .
3-A Accepted Practices are for use on a voluntary basis by equipment and machinery fabricators, processors, regulatory agencies and others to assure adequate public health protections exist for the equipment or systems and covered products. 3-A SSI uses these documents as its source of sanitary criteria for 3-A Symbol authorization.
This 3-A Accepted Practice was developed jointly by 3-A SSI, the United States Public Health Service (USPHS), the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), the United States Department of Agriculture – Dairy Programs (USDA), and the European Hygienic Engineering Design Group (EHEDG).
Copies of the new standards are now available for purchase in electronic format or printed version through the 3-A SSI web site at www.3-a.org, see ‘Purchase Standards and Practices’.# # #
3-A Sanitary Standards, Inc. is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3)
organization whose mission is to enhance product safety
for consumers
of food, beverages, and pharmaceutical products through the development
and use of 3-A Sanitary Standards and 3-A Accepted Practices. Visit the
3-A SSI web site at www.3-a.org.