How Hygienic & Sanitary Design Powers Efficiency on the Line

It starts with something small. A single droplet of water left to pool inside a crevice. A crack too fine for the naked eye, but just wide enough to trap organic residue. One cleaning step skipped in a rush to get back online. Then come the consequences: a contamination alert. A product recall. A line shutdown. And suddenly, what looked like a minor design oversight becomes a multi-million-pound mistake.

- By Holger Schmidt, Global Industry Manager Food & Beverage, Mettler-Toledo Product Inspection

In food, beverage and pharmaceutical production, there's no room for shortcuts - yet many manufacturers still rely on equipment that's difficult to clean, prone to microbial buildup and costly to maintain. That's where hygienic design comes in. And while it's often framed as a compliance requirement, its real power lies in something far more valuable: operational efficiency.

Let's explore how well-designed product inspection equipment can not only support public health and legal obligations, but also unlock smarter, leaner more resilient manufacturing.

Meeting Standards Without Losing Speed

Today's manufacturers are navigating a global tangle of standards. From Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI)-benchmarked schemes like the BRCGS and Food Safety System Certification 22000 (FSSC 22000), to the US FDA's (Food & Drug Administration) Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) rules and the European Hygienic Engineering & Design Group (EHEDG) guidelines, hygienic design is no longer a niche requirement - it's central to how compliance is measured. Hygienic design goes beyond surface-level standards; FDA 21CFR177 and EN 1935/2004 plus GB 4806 are regulations about the type of materials used that are intended for contact with food. Ingress Protection (IP) ratings such as IP65 or IP66 signify how well the equipment is protected against solids (i.e. dust) and liquids (i.e. water).

The True Cost of Hygienic Design

Hygienic design should also play a foundational role in developing a site's Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) programme. It needs to be clear that using hygienically designed equipment is not simply about satisfying auditors; it is about producing safe, high-quality products as efficiently as possible. Production line equipment must be constantly cleaned and sterilised however costs increase in line with the more time, energy, water and detergents that are used.