Japanese Ishida is adopting the procedures of the European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group to guarantee perfect hygiene conditions and enhance food safety

Founded in Kyoto, Japan, in 1893, Ishida is a global family-owned company, with a turnover in excess of $1 billion USD and more than 3,500 employees across the globe. Ishida is present in Europe with its regional headquarters in Birmingham.

Ishida originally specialised in weighing equipment, having built the world’s first automatic weighing machine in 1959. It then diversified in the 1970s, expanding its range of products to not only weighing systems, but also packing machines, quality control systems and solutions for fresh, frozen and dry foods.

The company recently teamed up with EHEDG (European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group) to ensure the provision and maintenance of exceptionally high standards for hygienic process design and food safety.

Ishida partnership with EHEDG ensures the latest food safety guidance and advice is integrated into the hygienic design phase for new product development and continuous product improvement.

EHEDG actively supports European legislation, which requires the handling, preparation, processing and packaging of food to be carried out hygienically. Procedures must employ hygienic machinery in hygienic premises in accordance with EC directives on food hygiene and machinery, as well as food contact materials (see EC Directive 2006/42/EC for Machinery, EN 1672-2 and EN ISO 14159 on Hygiene requirements for the design of machinery). This ensures elements such as food handling, safety and the machine’s clean-ability are always designed into Ishida’s solutions.

In working with EHEDG, the common goal is to boost hygiene, improve food safety and increase cleaning efficiency and effectiveness during the processing and packaging of food products.

Equipment manufacturers and users are responsible to implement these requirements and EHEDG provides guidance on the essential hygienic design standards in compliance with national and international legislation.