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For over 100 years, 3-A Sanitary Standards have been used to set the baseline criteria for hygienic design for dairy processing equipment. Today, beverage and bottling, brewery, confectionary, cosmetics, personal care, and many more similar industries are rapidly adopting the core foundations of our knowledge base via information garnered from our ANSI/3-A Sanitary Standard for General Requirements, 00-01-2018 (“GR”). In fact, this document accounts for a significant portion of all 3-A SSI documents sold each quarter, and customers hail from multiple industries around the world. Why so? These elements embody the common principles 3-A SSI recognizes for hygienic design, including equipment cleanability, inspectability, or sustainability in the environment of intended use.
3-A SSI maintains over 80 different individual equipment standards and 10 Accepted Practices for process systems which have all been slated for revision per our Guidance Document for the Development of 3-A Sanitary Standards and Accepted Practices with Examples of Text for Criteria, to include the GR as a normative reference. So far, we’re nearly halfway there ever since the first ‘B Level revision’ (3-A Sanitary Standard for Metal Tubing, Number 33-03) was published in 2016. Today, 14 Working Groups are actively engaged in the 5-year full revision of the GR, 13 individual ‘B-Level’ revision projects, and 4 amendment proposal projects.
We expect the publication of the 2nd edition of 3-A Sanitary Standard for Ball Valves, 68- to proceed shortly. This standard has not been revised since 1995, not because there weren’t proposals for amendment of the standard. On the contrary, WG3 (Valves & Fittings) reviewed a series of amendment proposals for 68-00 during 2006-2007 and again from 2010-2012. These amendment proposals never achieved approval. Then in 2021, the ‘B Level’ revision began and achieved WG and Steering Committee approval. The approved document is now completing a 45-day appeal period to end September 14, 2023, at which time all 3-A Symbol Holders and the greater industry will be informed of the new edition.
Amendment Proposals under review are:
· B-74-07-A for the allowance of molded injection metal components for sensors
· B-102-00-A for the allowance of interference fits for sensors used in Automated Milking Installations
· B-26-06-A for the allowance of exposed threads for sifters for dry products
· B-78-03-A for the allowance of mechanical force seals for spray cleaning devices
‘B Revision’ Projects underway are:
· Resolution of comments post Original WG Ballot for B-22-08, Revision of Silo-Type Tanks
· Review and drafting of B-25-03-A, Revision of Non-coil Type Batch Processors
· Original WG Ballot in progress for B-57-02-A, Revision of Disc-Type Valves
· Review and drafting of B-51-01-A, Revision of Plug-Type Valves
· Review and drafting of B-19-07-A, Revision of Batch and Continuous Freezers for Ice Cream, Ices and Similarly Frozen Foods
· Review and drafting of B-41-03-A, Revision of Mechanical Conveyors for Dry Milk and Dry Milk Products
· Review and drafting of B-617-00-A, Revision of Accepted Practice for Pneumatic Conveyors for Dry Milk and Dry Milk Products
· Review and drafting of B-40-04-A, Revision of Bag Collector
· Original WG Ballot in progress for B-13-11-A, Revision of Farm Milk Cooling and Holding Tanks
· Review and drafting of B-606-05-A, Revision of Accepted Practice for Design, Fabrication and Installation of Milk Handling Equipment
· Original Steering Committee Ballot for the final approval of B-71-01-B, Revision of Italian-Type Pasta Filata Style Cheese Moulders and merger with B-72-01-A Italian-Type Pasta Filata Style Moulded Cheese Chillers
· Original Steering Committee Ballot in progress for B-604-05-A, Revision of Accepted Practice for Supplying Air Under Pressure for Product and Product Contact Surfaces
Project Updates at Your Fingertips!
Stay up to date! You can get a copy of the latest comprehensive report on the status of 3-A Sanitary Standards and 3-A Accepted Practices Activities. This report lists projects the 3-A SSI Working Groups are currently undertaking. It is updated on a routine basis. Read the report.
For more details on work in progress, contact the Working Group chair or Eric Schweitzer at 3-A SSI.
Stand Up and Sign Up!
We are currently soliciting volunteers to serve in all WGs as voting members or observers. There is no limit to how you can volunteer to assist in our mission to provide the highest degree of sanitary design for processing equipment.
If you would like to discuss projects needs or other areas of interest, we would encourage you to reach out to Eric Schweitzer, Director, Certification & Standards at erics@3-a.org; 703-790-0295 ext. 1
Eric Schweitzer is Director, Standards & Certification at 3-A Sanitary Standards, Inc.
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