• Facility upgrades are part of the journey for manufacturers eager to enter the booming ready meal space, writes Robert Blythman of Total Construction.
    Facility upgrades are part of the journey for manufacturers eager to enter the booming ready meal space, writes Robert Blythman of Total Construction.
Close×

With the rise of the ready meals sector in Australia, many food producers are looking to update their facilities to become manufacturers in this burgeoning market.

Although Australian food producers have facilities that meet HACCP requirements for food hygiene standards, many need to update both their facilities and processes to meet the ready meal market’s stringent quality food hygienic requirements.

The retailers, for instance, typically set their own Quality Assurance standards that need to be met by the producer, and these are usually audited every six months.

The operational process changes required can be relatively easily managed. Many times, however, it's the facility's building changes that are not so easy and can end up being expensive.

The construction challenges

 Many obstacles may be encountered when converting an existing food production facility to High Care/High Risk (HC/HR) ready meal operation. Here are just some of them:

  1. Retrofitting an existing building to accommodate HC/HR and low risk production can be difficult, as typically the building works need to be carried out in live environments – ensuring neighbouring businesses are not impeded.
  2. Many manufacturing operations are also located in converted warehouses where it's critical to ensure existing roof loading capacity is sufficient to support PIR panel and services. In addition, upgrading of supply services to the building is usually required, and more often than not you have to design within a relatively small footprint and to tight deadlines.
  3. It is also critical to ensure the design allows for a positive airflow from HC/HR areas to low-care areas, in particular around cook and take-off areas. DAFF (Dissolved Air Flotation Filtration) plants may also be required to meet Sydney Water standards. Significant power upgrades may also be needed to accommodate the increased refrigeration requirements.
  4. In addition, as many sites are traditional commercial units and the available power was never intended for a large power consumer such as a ready meal facility, an upgrade to the main supply may be required. Be wary, as any power upgrade can take significant time depending on the power availability in the general area around the facility, and can ultimately delay the project.
  5. Some sites are located in semi-urban or light industrial areas and site access can be a problem, resulting in the need to run staged deliveries of materials and equipment. The key to success is ensuring a highly detailed construction program with firm delivery targets on all materials, with equipment developed and adhered to throughout the build.
  6. In many circumstances, ready meal clients may demand a 'cold chain' for the products so that the flow of product from ingredients to finished goods never leave a cooled environment. To minimise the cost on refrigeration of the facility that this can pose, the process flow must ensure the nominal temperature can be maintained by concentrating the receivables/dispatch, low risk cook, high care take off, high care assembly and packing areas are within the central corridor of the building footprint.
  7. If using crockery plating in production, there is always a risk of breakage contaminating food. Thus, any crockery handling areas need to be segregated from the main high care assembly lines. This means incorporating a walled off area within the high care assembly area that operates as an independent high care zone.
  8. The necessity to segregate meats, poultry, dairy and seafood within storage areas can be a challenge due to space requirements to provide individual cold storage rooms. By concentrating cold storage into one location and providing “in room segregation” it is possible to reduce the overall cold store footprint and provide flexibility on the ratio of products stored, without disruption to process flows.

The Inside Out approach

To minimise build spend, you need to accommodate the changes required while using the facilities’ existing services as well as possible through smart design and construction methods.

Total Construction uses an 'inside out' approach, which includes 3D CAD walk-throughs that enable the client to analyse the draft design in terms of process flow and space requirements. After reviewing the design options, the client selects a layout that suits their operational needs, provides the efficiencies and cleanliness required, and suits their budget.

By combining operational practices with building design, you can achieve high care compliance. The key is incorporating process flows and finishes required with construction knowledge in the early stages of the design. This allows the implementation of 'building smarts' into the project to reduce capital expenditure and enhanced efficiencies. 

Here are some of the key criteria that need to be adhered to when designing a High Care/High Risk (HC/HR) facility:

  • HC/HR areas need to be isolated from all other operations.
  • Staff entering and exiting HC/HR areas need to transit through special sanitation points/rooms.
  • All product and materials have to either be pasteurised or sanitised when passing into the HC/HR areas.
  • All walls, floors and ceilings need to be impervious, sealed and easily cleaned.
  • All routed services need to be concealed with all penetrations sealed.
  • Roof spaces are to be accessible for cleaning and maintenance.
  • Floor falls and finishes must be sufficient to inhibit any pooling of water and should always fall away from any HC/HR barriers or equipment.
  • Drainage must flow from high care risk to low risk areas to ensure no back flow can occur.

Rob Blythman heads up business development in food and beverage at Total Construction. He can be contacted at robblythman@totalconstruction.com.au.

Packaging News

Earlier this month PKN published an article that voiced industry concern over the speculation that Qenos might be closing its polymer manufacturing plants in Australia. Qenos has remained silent on the matter. The MD of Qenos customer Impact International, Aleks Lajovic, wants some answers.

Amcor, a global leader in developing and producing responsible packaging solutions, is the proud recipient of eight FPA Awards for innovative and sustainable contributions to the industry.

An impressive number of quality entries into the inaugural Hive Awards created a highly competitive line-up for judges to consider. The packaging category was one of the most strongly contested.