AS 4024.2501:2017

AS 4024.2501:2017 PDF

This International Standard is one of a series of standards relating to the safety of machinery (ISO 12100 series). It differs from other safety standards, however, in that it is concerned with the associated hygiene risks of the machinery to the consumer of the product being processed, not to the operator of the machine.

Hygiene risks are very different from other safety risks. They are more associated with the ability of machines to be freed from product debris and micro-organisms, and thus preventing product contamination, rather than from the dangers of moving parts or electrical hazards to the operator. For this reason, and whilst this International Standard considers machines and their associated equipment, it can be used to provide guidance to the manufacturers of all equipment types where hygiene risks to the consumer of products to be processed by such equipment could occur.

This International Standard is a Type B standard (see ISO 12100) and as such is very general. It is applicable to all machines and associated equipment in applications where hygiene risks to the consumer of the product can occur (e.g., food, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, cosmetics). Other standards, such as for example machinery specific Type C standards (see Bibliography), may be required to provide guidance for specific types of equipment and/or for specific industry sectors.

Historically, there have been cases where safety criteria have been addressed in machinery design without taking into account the implications linked to hygienic risks (and vice versa). In almost all cases, at least one of the different methods of design, safeguarding or residual safeguards can be chosen which will meet both safety and hygiene essential requirements and adequately control both risks. The option chosen shall satisfy both hygiene and safety risks, even if it may not be the most obvious option to have been adopted had the risk only been to safety or to hygiene.