Fast doors key for food hygiene

Environmental control is critical for organisations dealing with food, particularly food for human consumption. Some form of entrance/exit is always going to be required, and for this a high speed automated door is probably the best solution as it will minimise the time the door is open, always shut promptly and requires no physical contact which could facilitate bacterial transfer.

The threat to hygiene most people think of is probably bacteria. There is something of a general perception that most bacteria are airborne and can be blown in through an open door. However, this is not quite right: only a few bacteria travel through the air, most are transferred from object to object, often via people’s hands. Thus, a door will stop airborne bacteria, but unless it is automatic, the handles or operating button may provide a route by which bacteria can be transferred and carried into the workplace.

For maximum hygiene protection, all surfaces of a door, its frame and related parts should be of a material that does not encourage bacterial activity, such as stainless steel, be designed for easy wipe down (including internal surfaces), not have nooks and crannies where bacteria can thrive, be open at the bottom so that water and cleaning fluids can run off rather than pooling and becoming a dust and dirt trap.

In fact dust and dirt are probably more of an immediate hygiene threat than bacteria. For one thing, they are visible – especially to a hygiene inspector! Dust can easily become airborne, blown around and settle where it is not welcome. Obviously settling on food products will compromise production so is completely unacceptable, while settling anywhere within the production space may encourage bacterial growth, may be transferred to people’s hands or to food products.

A fast opening and closing door reduces the time dust has to enter, while an automatic one that operates without having person after person touch the same handle or button will reduce the sort of relay transfer by which dust and other small particulates travel.

Another area in which automatic doors can play a role in hygiene management is temperature control. It is almost inevitable that the temperature on one side of a door will be at least slightly different to that on the other side. So each time the door is opened there will be a temperature gradient and heat will flow freely to the cooler side until the door is closed again, upsetting the optimised temperature in the food handling area. Clearly a fast operating door will reduce this effect.

Food production, storage and distribution are usually temperature-critical activities, so the affects of doors opening and closing has to be considered and managed within acceptable tolerances. However, in a busy commercial environment, there may be a need for considerable traffic in and out of the production area, be it pedestrians, vehicles, or carts and trolleys used in materials handling. Thus doors may need to open multiple times an hour. Again a fast opening and closing will offer advantages by reducing the time that heat has to transfer.

While considering temperature, it should be noted that considerable energy is required to change a work space’s temperature from ambient, either up or down, so that it is optimised for food operations. Fast doors can therefore have a significant impact on controlling energy bills as well as hygiene control.

To meet the specific requirements for hygiene and temperature stability in the food industry, sara LBS has developed the Rapid Food Door, with the objective of setting new standards for hygiene, efficiency and user safety, while providing rapid opening and closing.