Recommendations On Drainage Systems in Food Plants
Ensuring the safety of the food that processes in a plant depends not only on good personal hygiene practices, but also on ensuring the good design of the facilities and the maintenance of services inside and outside the facilities. A topic of interest is the service related to the management and disposal of effluents, including cleaning activities, drainage maintenance, desilting and drilling.
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On this occasion we will talk about the recommendations for drainage systems in facilities where food process, as well as the importance of having an adequate system and maintenance for the disposal of effluents to guarantee its proper functioning and thereby avoid problems. related to safety.
Sewer System
Types Of Waste Waters
Wastewater or effluents are known as liquid waste from process and service areas that discharges into the drains or sewers. They basically divide into two types:
- Greywater (from processes)
- black water
- Washing hands, surfaces, and utensils.
- Cleaning, disinfection, and food conditioning.
- Refrigeration condensation.
- Of toilets / urinals
- Mopping
- Of showers
Each of these sewages must disposes of separately in a drainage system designed for this purpose, this means that there should be no cross connections within the facilities that allow their exchange. For both effluents, there must be a drainage system that allows their discharge in an efficient manner, this through an uninterrupted connection to the treatment area.
Typical Problems in Sewage Management
There are several factors that cause problems in the proper management of effluents, some of which mentions below:
- The plant operates in buildings already built where the facilities not design for that purpose.
- Existence of cross connections in the drainage system due to lack of sanitary design criteria at the time of construction.
- Use of inadequate piping that over time becomes clogged or fragmented, causing contamination problems due to stagnation or leakage of effluents.
- Lack of slope level in the drainage pipe branches towards the discharge area.
- Lack of slope in the floors that prevents adequate drainage of effluents in the case of process water.
- Pipes whose diameters are not suitable for the discharge flow rate of the effluents.
- Lack of grids and solid traps which cause the obstruction of pipes.
- Lack of piping and registers for rainwater collection, which generates ponding and flooding in the surroundings of the plant.
The lack of maintenance, use of inadequate materials and deficiencies in the design of drainage systems, both for black and gray water, cause:
- Presence of unpleasant odors in the interior/exterior environment of the plant.
- Water stagnation within the process areas. Ponding and flooding in the surroundings of the plant. Presence of pests.
- Backflow of process water a result of the lack of slope in pipes or due to insufficient diameter of the pipe for evacuation.
Common Installations
Some common examples that occur in installations are:
Non-sanitary drain, without odor trap and for pests. No chance to clean it properly.
Non-Sanitary Drainage
Strainer without lid, non-sanitary strainer.
Strainer Without Lid
Incomplete grids, in poor condition, which favor the entry of pests.
Incomplete Grids
Exterior drain without cover and with garbage.
Outside Drain
Poorly sealed drain registers, potential entry for pests and odor release.
Drain Logs
Lack of inclination in the floor that causes puddles of water.
Drain Logs
Regulations on effluent management
Agency/Standard
Specifications For Drainage Systems Drainage Maintenance Services
Hygiene performs for the dealing of food, beverages, or food supplements.
- To avoid pests coming from the drainage, it must equip with traps against odors and drains or gutters with gratings, which must keep free of garbage, without stagnation and in good condition. When the drains do not allow the use of these devices, other measures must establish with the same purpose.
- The establishments must have an effluent or residual water evacuation system, which must be free of refluxes, leaks, residues, wastes and harmful fauna.
- When required, drains must provide with grease traps.
- The drains must have an appropriate cover to prevent the entry of pests from the sewage system or external areas.
- Food-Hygienic handling in the service of prepared food to obtain the distinctive.
Clean Physical Installations
In its section Physical installations, it mentions that the drains, channels, and grease traps must be clean, without stagnation and maintained with grids and/or covers.
Likewise, section establishes that the plumbing installations and ducts must not present refluxes or leaks.
- Zoo sanitary specifications for the construction and equipment of establishments for the slaughter of animals and those dedicated to the industrialization of meat products.
- Plant drainage. An inlet for drainage must provide for every 45 m2. The slope will be 2 cm per linear meter towards the drainage entrances. In places where a limited amount of water uses, the slope can be 1 cm per linear meter. Floors should slope evenly toward drains with no lower places for liquids to collect.
- Special requirements for drains. Under the rails where animals are prepared for slaughter, there will be gutters or gullies with edges for floor drainage that will be 60 cm wide and in one piece, with a floor slope of at least 1 cm per linear meter. Drains should flow in the opposite direction to the movement of the processing line.
- Sanitary drainage lines. Toilet and urinal drain lines should not connect to other drain lines within the facility or discharge into grease recovery traps.
Drainage Lines Flow
Trunk lines into which several drainage lines flow must be proportionally wider to efficiently dispose of the discharges they receive.
1) In plants where effluents with a high fat content disposes of, there must be at least one trap prior to discharging the effluent into the municipal network. In cases where the discharge of grease is greater, tanks must install for the recovery of grease.
2) The tanks must be far from the areas where edible products finds and from the places says products ae loads or unloaded; which had a sloping bottom to facilitate cleaning.
3) The outside area surrounding the tank will paved with waterproof material and equipped with its own drainage; It will also have work facilities such as an exhaust tank to transport the fats to their disposal point.
4) Provide adequate drainage in all areas where floors expose to the accumulation of water or in areas where normal cleaning operations discharge liquid residues on the ground.
5) Ensure there are no backflows or cross connections between piping systems discharging wastewater and piping systems supplying water for food manufacturing.
Recommendations For Proper Management of Sewages
For proper management of effluents, it is necessary to consider the following criteria:
Design of the drainage system (pipes)
Prior to the construction of a plant and as part of the detailed design, drainage installation plans must generate where, according to engineering calculations, the diameters of pipes, connections and slopes are determined. So also, the plans corresponding to the specifications of drains and slopes.
Some recommendations on pipe diameters according to the type of effluent are as follows:
- Greywater (from processes)
- Black water
- Sinks: 3″
- Sink: 3″
- Sanitary customs: 3″
- Strainers: 4″
- Of toilets: 4″
- Urinals: 2″
- Of shower heads: 2″
The installation of registers every 10 m approximately recommend. Some typical measurements of the maintenance holes are 40 x 60 cm and 1.10 x 1.20 m for larger discharge volumes.
In multi-level installations, toilet drain lines should not installs over or near any process and storage lines.
Slope Of Floors
A higher slope incline recommends in areas where a lot of water handles and a little less in areas with low water presence. In the case of dry warehouses and refrigeration or freezing rooms, no slopes made and no drains installs. Looking for Drainage Maintenance Services in Dubai.
Illustration Of the Slope of The Floors
Installation Of Strainers
For process areas, sanitary sewers must provide with odor and solid traps. Diamond coating of floors recommends. The drains located in sanitary areas must provide with grids to prevent the proliferation of pests, in addition to having a design that allows them to cleans.
Installation of drains Proper location of drains and diamond flooring
Installation Of Grease Traps
The drainage system used to collect process water must have a grease trap before discharging said effluent into the municipal network.
For installations where it is not possible to place the grease trap outside, it must install in areas such as corridors so as not to represent a risk of contamination in process areas at the time of cleaning.
For processes whose discharges have a high fat content, the installation of tanks for fat recovery recommends.
Grease Traps
Grease traps designs to prevent the discharge of grease or oil into municipal sewers.
Exterior Drains
There should be adequate slopes towards the culverts to drain stormwater.
On the loading and unloading platforms, it recommends to install drains to collect rainwater and collect it in water maintenance holes or also called “dumps”.
Exterior Drains
The drains and channels for the collection of rainwater from rooftops and patios must have grids to prevent the accumulation of garbage and pests.
Recommendations For Drain Maintenance
- It is important to periodically clean the drains and grids both in the process areas and those existing in the surroundings.
- Desilting must schedule, which is the suction of grease and general cleaning, to avoid saturation of grease traps.
- Drainage pipes, both for black water and gray water, must probe periodically to avoid obstructions and the attraction of harmful fauna.
- If the drainage network becomes clogged, the operation must suspend and started once the corresponding survey carried out and the areas have been clean.
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