Food-Grade Air

Compressed Air and Vacuum System Purity for Food Packaging

By John Schmitt, Marketing Product Manager; Weston Benton, Product Channel Manager – Vacuum & Low Pressure, and Rob Grizzle, Midwest Sales Manager, Kaishan USA

This article examines strategies for achieving high-purity compressed air and vacuum systems in food processing and packaging facilities, emphasizing ISO 8573.1 quality classes, moisture control, particulate filtration, and food-grade lubricants. It also details best practices for system layout, centralized vacuum implementation, pressure dew point management, and preventive maintenance to reduce contamination risk, maintain equipment reliability, and ensure food safety compliance.
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Meeting ISO 8573-1 Compressed Air Quality Specifications

By Ron Marshall, Chief Auditor, Marshall Compressed Air Consulting

The ISO 8573-1 was developed to provide standardized classes for compressed air purity in terms of particles, water and oil to drive the planning and design of compressed air systems in order to deliver the quality desired or required. This article explores why testing compressed air quality is as essential as choosing the right filtration, discusses real-world experiences, illustrates the risks of assuming things are right and explains the value of compressed air measurement. 
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Defining the Purity of Facility Generated Nitrogen Gas

By the Compressed Air & Gas Institute

While oxygen is unquestionably the most important gas in our atmosphere, as it is essential for most animals and human life, nitrogen is the most widely used atmospheric gas.  Nitrogen is the go-to gas for countless industrial, medical, and scientific applications. This is because nitrogen is in vast supply, inert, and possesses the desirable characteristics of being colorless, odorless, and tasteless. The purity of nitrogen significantly affects the outcome of the application for which it is used and how the industry measures the purity of nitrogen gas is the focus of this article.       
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Food Safety Design Tips for Pneumatic Systems

By Steve Bain, Industry Segment Manager Food & Beverage, Festo US

Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs) under FSMA CFR Title 21 117.40 is the cornerstone of this food safety effort. Title 21 details the cleanability and cross contamination standards that plants must meet so that food is deemed safe. The following are tips for updating existing pneumatic systems in food and packaging and what to look for when purchasing new systems. 
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Microbiological Testing Considerations for Compressed and High Risk Ambient Air Systems in Food Plants

By Rochester Midland Corporation

Micro-aerosolized droplets are how many members of the microbial world become cross-contaminants via the air mode of transmission.  Food borne viral pathogen Hepatitis A and the ubiquitous Norwalk are very often transported via micro- aerosols. It is well known that many viral or bacterial pathogens or spoilers are transmitted via respiratory bursts [coughs/ sneezes] from people or air handling system, condensate, and splash back from floors. Strict cGMPs  can limit  and control transmission in terms of personal & environmental  hygiene.
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Keep Contaminants Out of Food and Beverage Processing Air Supplies

By Brandon Brownlee, Motion Industries

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, more than 30,000 food and beverage processing plants across the United States employ more than 1.5 million workers.1 Each of those plants applies a wide range of processes to raw agricultural goods to produce consumable food and beverage products.
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Nitrogen Gas in the Food Process

By Jenny Palkowitsh, Trace Analytics

Gaseous nitrogen is used in a variety of systems and processes in the food manufacturing and packaging industries. Often regarded as the industry standard for non-chemical preservation, nitrogen is an inexpensive, readily available option. Suited for a variety of uses, Nitrogen needs to be monitored for purity and potential contaminants. Depending on the type of use, the distribution channel, and the required purity levels, different testing plans should be implemented to ensure safety.
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Microbial Testing and Compressed Air Standard ISO 8573-7

By Maria Sandoval, Microbiologist, Trace Analytics

This article will focus on ISO8573-7 normative test methods and analysis for viable microbiological contaminants and how it can be fundamentally utilized in compressed air microbial monitoring plans. The quality of the compressed air must be monitored periodically to fulfill national and international standards. ISO 8573 is an available standard addressing compressed air quality. It consists of nine parts that address purity classes, specifications, and procedures. ISO 8573-7:2003, can be utilized across all industries’ compressed air microbial monitoring plans. It contains both informative and normative procedures but lacks any tested compressed air microbial specifications regarding colony enumeration limits for microbial plate counts.
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Sampling and Testing for Compressed Air Contaminants

By Ruby Ochoa, (Retired) President and Owner, Trace Analytics, LLC

According to the Compressed Air and Gas Institute (CAGI) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the three major contaminants in compressed air are solid particles, water, and oil. CAGI promotes proper use of air compressors with various educational tools, while ISO 8573 is directed at the very specific areas of compressed air purity and test methods, which this article will address. Microorganisms are also considered a major contaminant by CAGI, but will not be discussed in this article.
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Using H1 Food-Grade Lubricants in Food Processing Plants

By Isel Inc.

Health and safety issues are a major concern in the food industry. Not only can contaminated food products endanger consumers, but they also can cause significant damage to a company’s reputation and bottom line. Contamination can come from many sources—industrial lubricants among them. With the abundance of lubricated machinery used in the food industry, lubricant dripping from a chain or escaping through a leak in a component can prove catastrophic. Even with the most prudent maintenance and operating procedures, along with a strict HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control points) plan, contamination may still occur.
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Compressed Air GMPs for GFSI Food Safety Compliance

By Lee Scott, Parker Gas Separation & Filtration Division

Any modern food manufacturing facility employs compressed air extensively in the plant. As common as it is, the potential hazards associated with this powerful utility are not obvious and apparent. Food hygiene legislation to protect the consumer places the duty of care on the food manufacturer. For this reason, many companies often devise their own internal air quality standards based upon what they think or have been told are “best practices.” This is no wonder, as the published collections of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) that relate to compressed air are nebulous and difficult to wade through.
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Assessing the Impact of Compressed Air Quality on Food Products

By Trace Analytics

Compressed air is a critical utility widely used throughout the food industry.  Being aware of the composition of compressed air used in your plant is key to avoiding product contamination.  Your task is to assess the activities and operations that can harm a product, the extent to which a product can be harmed, and how likely it is that product harm will occur. Assessing product contamination is a multi-step process in which you must identify the important risks, prioritize them for management, and take reasonable steps to remove or reduce the chance of harm to the product, and, in particular, serious harm to the consumer.
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Harris Equipment Helps Food Companies Attain SQF Certification

By Neal Lorenzi

SQF is a food safety management company that conducts audits and reports its findings on companies that voluntarily subscribe to its services. Once an audit is performed, SQF releases the data; from this data, other companies can determine who they want to use for packaging and manufacturing. To facilitate the process, SQF has released a guide that provides directives for processes used in manufacturing.
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NIOSH and OSHA Grade D Standard Review for Supplied Air Respirators

By Dan Whyman, Compressed Air Division Manager, Air and Liquid Systems, Inc.

Compressed air is the most common utility used in a typical industrial facility. It encompasses most operating aspects of the plant. The compressed air system can end up being the most expensive utility due to the focus that if production is running - then leave the system alone. Processes and machines are added and as long as the compressor can handle the increasing load - all is good. This brings us to our subject matter. The plant adds a process, a specialty coating line, requiring respirator protection. The plant determines supplied air respirators are the best choice. They want to be responsible and do the right thing so they start by reviewing what OSHA has to say on the subject.
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Compressed Air System Design Recommendations for Food Processors

By Roderick Smith, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

It was the Fall of 1997 in Germany. I was just another guy working in the German compressed air industry. East Germans were still being looked down on - seven years after unification, the Euro was launching in little over a year - forcing marketing managers like me to scramble and create unified european Euro pricing strategies, European Cohesion Funds were flowing out of Germany and into the Mediterranean (not literally), and the diminutive Mercedes “Smart Car” was the cool car for space-challenged urban dwellers. With this going on, you can imagine the surprise of the compressed air industry when compressed air was featured in “Der Spiegel”, a “Newsweek-like” weekly magazine in Germany with national distribution.
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Three Types of Food-Industry Compressed Air Systems

By Air Technology Group Hitachi America, Ltd., Industrial Components & Equipment Division

Compressed air is a key utility supporting the food packaging and food processing industries in North America. Compressed air must be contaminant-free to ensure the protection of the food products processed in each facility. The U.K. Code of Practice for Food-Grade Air helps define three types of compressed air systems and air purification specifications required for each.
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ASME EA-4-2010 - Energy Assessment for Compressed Air Systems. What’s it all about?

By Joe Ghislain for the Compressed Air Challenge®

Over the years, analyzing compressed air system operation and efficiency has gone under various names and taken many different shapes and forms. You may know these as; Assessments, Audits, Studies, and Surveys, but in all cases the compressed systems are analyzed using techniques, such as metering and measuring, to assess the system’s performance and identify opportunities for improvement. The problem is that the results of these activities have varied widely; leaving the end-user to try and determine what is usable, credible and implementable. This has led to a lot of “no actions“, resulting in assessments, audits, studies, and surveys being put on the shelf to collect dust.
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Air Quality Standards ISO 8573.1 & ISO12500

Jay Francis, Commercial Lead, Air Treatment Solutions, Industrial Technologies and Services-Americas, Hankison

The next time you sit down for dinner, take a good look at your food. There’s a very good chance compressed air played an essential role in preparing your meal for consumption.
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ISO 8573.1 – Contaminants and Purity Classes

By Dan Ryan, Division Engineering Manager, Parker Hannifin Corporation

Industry standards serve a very important purpose for the end users of compressed air equipment.  If the standards are well written, they can help to promote the equipment that they govern, as long as the equipment manufacturers properly apply and promote the standards.
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