The 3-A Symbol: Link to the Past – Key to the Future

The year 1949 stands out in history for many major news events, such as:

·      The Berlin Blockade officially comes to an end

·      The Communist People's Republic of China is proclaimed under Mao Tse Tung

·      The First Non-Stop Circumnavigation Flight

·      George Orwell's book Nineteen Eighty-Four is published

·      The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established

·      De-Havilland Comet first commercial passenger jet airliner takes its first test flight

·      The world's first commercially available computer, The Ferranti Mark 1 is released

Perhaps the most notable event is rarely mentioned: This is the year of the first registration and commercial use of the 3-A Symbol, which has remained under official U.S. trademark registration ever since then.

In 1949, the first commercial use of the 3-A Symbol occurred when a company called Cherry-Burrell Corporation received the first authorization to use the symbol on their equipment. This marked the beginning of the official use of the 3-ASymbol as a recognizable indicator of equipment meeting high sanitary standards in the food processing industry and supporting the regulatory inspection programs for dairy equipment at the state and federal levels.

The 3-A Symbol is a registered mark used to indicate that food processing equipment meets criteria for hygienic design in a 3-A Sanitary Standard.  3-A Sanitary Standards originated in the 1920s to establish commonly accepted baseline design criteria for equipment to address hygiene and sanitation concerns in the dairy industry. Over the decades, this continuing collaboration of regulatory sanitarians, processors and fabricators has produced a comprehensive inventory of modern standards which are widely referenced by regulatory sanitarians as well as fabricators and processors across the U.S. and around the world.  Today, 3-A Sanitary Standards encompass applications in a wide range of food processing industries and other hygienic applications, such as personal care products and more. 3-A SSI also maintains 10 Accepted Practices for vital processing systems for dairy and other foods processing.

3-A SSI administers the 3-A Symbol program today and maintains a database of all authorized symbol holders and the original date of issuance.  Here is an interesting snapshot of the ‘vintage’ of authorizations in our database:

Years of Issuance                                         Percent of Total Today                              

1956-1960                                                             2.5

1961-1970                                                              1.1

1971-1980                                                              2.3

1981-1990                                                              3.6

1991-2000                                                             12.3

2001-2010                                                             19.9

2011-2020                                                             43.4

2021-Now                                                             14.8

This shows the ‘staying power’ of the 3-A Symbol authorization through many decades from 1956-2010.  It also reflects substantial new interest in such verified equipment from 2011 onward.  About 58.2% of today’s authorizations were issued since 2011.  This recent expansion bears no direct relation solely to changes in dairy industry regulation: The entire food industry and others are ‘raising the bar’ on demand for hygienic design for equipment, and 3-A Sanitary Standards and the 3-A Symbol program are central to supporting this demand.

Future Drivers

So, what is behind the value equation for 3-A Symbol authorization?

Perceived Value = Perceived Benefits/Cost.

The same factors that initiated the first use of the 3-A Symbol in 1949 continue to drive new interest in the program today. Factors such as the Food Safety Modernization Act and demanding customer specifications for processing operations around the globe are reinforcing significant new interest.

·      Promotes acceptance of equipment by USDA, FDA, and state regulatory authorities.

·      Verifies the equipment conforms to 3-A Sanitary Standards design criteria.

·      Passed the independent Third-Party Verification inspection for 3-A Symbol authorization.

·      Saves time and money in equipment qualification, cleaning, maintenance, and sustainability.

For a great primer on the benefits of 3-A Symbol authorization, check out our YouTube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SboQhTlzTeU.  3-A SSI offers tools to help you get started on obtaining authorization to use the 3-A Symbol and other certificate programs at: https://www.3-a.org/certificates

Paul Mueller Co. - Yesterday and Today

3-A SSI today maintains authorizations for 12 pioneering companies with a date of issuance extending back to 1956. Paul Mueller Company is the earliest of these holders, receiving 3-A Symbol Authorization Certificate #12 on July 31, 1956.  Here is an early advertisement from founder Paul Mueller:

From this modest start, Paul Mueller Company today offers a vast range of standard and custom products, including tanks and vessels which can be shop-built up to 100,000 gallons and 17 feet in diameter and field-constructed up to 2,000,000 gallons. Paul Mueller Company continues to maintain 3-A Symbol authorizations for multiple types of modern equipment.

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