Roller Shutter Doors are not hygienic enough for food processing…here’s why!

Back in the day if you were a food processor, retail market or restaurant, you’d just pop open your roller shutter door out the back and you were ‘open for business’.

Never mind that the all sorts of pests, dusts, contaminants and so on might get into your food processing area.

No worries, you’d just add a bit of wire mesh and seal up the doors. Bird brush might not keep out all the birds, but in any case “she’ll be right”.

 

The slats would roll up on each other, transferring grime and gunk onto the slats and into the facility, dirt and dust would collect in the tracks and transfer up into the motor, and along with all that, you’d never really had the time to stop to think how slow the door was operating!

For years, Roller Shutter doors have been considered an appropriate design solution, and by default installed by owners and developers of warehouses, food processing facilities and ‘big box’ retailers. They are made up of durable slats that roll-up which are operated using a hand chain or motorised. This type of door has worked ok in the past  to enhance security on exterior doorways of a building but it’s slow cycle time is just not the best option for the required hygiene standards inside food processing doorways.

Today, New Zealand supplies world-class food products to some of the most lucrative markets all over the world,  and the Ministry of Primary Industries no longer considers roller shutter doors on their own to be effective in food handling facilities.

There’s no mistake about it – New Zealand’s climate is changing. Climate change has contributed to more extreme temperatures and within these types facilities temperature control is becoming an even bigger requirement than before, and not a nice to have.

Pests that have been rare in New Zealand have become more commonplace and require properly sealed doors to prevent entry to our food-processing and food-retailing facilities. The slats on roller doors can easily accumulate dusts which can contaminate and spoil the products passing under the door. In cases where damages which result from crashes could take time to repair and compromise the control of air movement in the room.

It just won’t do anymore. We need to understand that future-proofing our facilities starts with owners and developers and with tenant companies asking for better solutions.

As food travels through various rooms within the food processing plant and transformed into packaged product, a number of contaminants can be a serious threat to quality and safety. This is why the type of door being used is an important consideration.

Hygienic and controlled environments in food processing facilities require specialised doors, and need to be tailored to each area’s specific conditions in your facility – e.g.  A high speed insulated fabric door or a bi-parting freezer door. Here are all the doors that are available for hygienic conditions

Get in touch with us now to discuss the best possible hygienic solution for your facility with an Ulti Group representative.