The 2013 FISA Annual Conference was recently held in Savannah, GA. FISA brings together independent distributors and manufacturers serving high purity and sanitary processing industries in food, beverage, personal care, pharmaceutical and Bio-pharm.

At the conference, FISA featured a seminar from Allen Sayler, Managing Partner for the Center for Food Safety and Regulatory Solutions (CFSRS). During the seminar, Sayler addressed the key issues facing the industry, including Hard To Clean Equipment, which ranked sixth on his list of problems needing to be addressed.

Sayler’s comments are especially pertinent given the upcoming regulation derived from the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FMSA), which focuses on reducing risks from potential food sources and processes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one out of every six people in the U.S. are hospitalized annually from food-borne illnesses — and approximately 3,000 die.

“The thoughtful approach that FISA and it’s members are taking to be proactively knowledgeable on this key topic along with services provided by CFSRS and others, will be essential to navigate and generate value from these food safety legislative changes,” said Wallace Wittkoff, Director Global Hygienic Segment for Pump Solutions Group (PSG^®). PSG is an operating company within Dover Corporation (NYSE: DOV) and a global leader of hygienic pump technologies. PSG was a participant and sponsor of the recent FISA conference.

Key takeaways from Sayler’s seminar for minimizing and preventing hazards were:

• Food Safety Plan, whereby essential elements, validated procedures and process controls will be documented for traceability and record keeping to ensure compliance.
• A timeline that includes a comment period up to November 2014 and enforcement to start from October 2015 to 2017, depending on size of the processor.
• Litigation that may force implementation (legislated or self regulated) of portions of the plan sooner than the current estimated timeline.
• Clean-ability and prevention of cross contamination are the key focus for equipment manufacturers and suppliers.

To learn more about Pump Solutions Group (PSG^®), please visit www.psgdover.com.