Food Grade Electrical Installations

[Harky]

Does UL have a specific standard for food safety when it comes to electrical installations? If not, does one exist from another third party like ISO, IEEE, etc. I'm looking for a document describing exact electrical installation requirments for a food processing facility. I know what the best practices are: stainless everything, sloped enclosures, no all-thread, no uni-strut, shatterproof light fixtures, etc. Just wondering if there is a standard spelling all this out.

 

[renosteinke]

The only standard I'm aware of is the "Health Code." You'll probably want to ask you local Health Department which standard they follow.

The key distinction is whether an area is subject to 'wash down.' In such areas - typically where the food is actually prepared - they will want a space between any conduit and the wall to allow for cleaning. Whether you can meet this requirement with ordinary Mineralacs, or if you'll have to use plastic spacers from the plumbing supply house, is a Health Department call. Boxes and panels in such areas will need a space behind them to allow condensation to drain; that's why Bell boxes have those little nubs on their backs.

Here's a link to one such model code: http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Food/F...rotection/FoodCode/FoodCode2009/UCM189448.pdf

I think you'll find most of your 'best practices' are addressed, though often in an indirect way.

Please also note that any chemicals, caulks, oils, and cleaners used are also expected to have some sort of USDA approval (H-1, H-2, etc.)

 

[kwired]

I think you will also find that USDA is more aggressive (for lack of better term) with requirements in meat and dairy processing locations than they are in other food product areas.

Then you run into companies that are evaluated by third party organizations, and they are more strict with requirements than USDA, if you want to get a good "grade" from them.

Some companies will not buy your product without a good grade from such third party inspection companies. These companies may not deal directly with electrical codes, but if you have a rusted metal conduit running directly over open product, they will pay attention to it.

A plant where I work at stopped painting motors and now simply puts mineral oil on the bare metal. They would always get bad marks for paint peeling off motors. You can paint them every few weeks and you will still have flaking problems. Mineral oil keeps them from rusting yet does not flake off like paint does. It also does periodically need reapplied, but it is much easier than dealing with flaking paint.

Of course stainless motors is better yet.