Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop a tool that enables quantification of fulfillment of hygienic design criteria during the prototype development of an industrial device for drying food using supercritical fluids.
Methods: The prototype of an industrial device for drying food using supercritical fluids was evaluated against 50 requirements, based on published hygienic design, scientific manuscripts, and standards. The requirements have been deployed in three dimensions: types of materials and their compatibility in food industry; hygienic designs and construction of the new industrial device; and functional requirements for the new food processing equipment. Finally, a hygienic design index was developed as a scoring method, covering three possible outcomes for each of the 50 requirements: satisfactory and minor and major nonconformity.
Results: In this phase of the project, the overall hygienic design index for the prototype was 46%. For the group of requirements covering types of materials and their compatibility, the prototype achieved 40%. Within the second group comprising hygienic designs and construction requirements, a scored of 60% was achieved. The score for the last group, covering functional requirements, reached 35%.
Significance: Results confirmed that development of specific hygienic design criteria for new food processing equipment may aid during the design phase, as well as during future development of similar drying technologies based on supercritical fluids. This type of tool may, also, help in evolving technology readiness levels.