BRCGS Point 4.5.3, Compressed Air
Hi, the point 4.5.3 of BRCGS v9 say "Compressed air that is in direct contact with the product shall be filtered at point of use"...... no one I know use filter "at the point of use" for compressed aur but only in outgoing of the compressor machine.
What do you think?
Greetings,
There is no change in what you do in comparison to the previous version of the standard and in practice. In fact even the wording is unchanged. By "point of use" it means that the air needs to be filtered prior to use, it doesn't specify the exact point that you will place the filter. This goes hand-in-hand with the regular filter checks and maintenance that you need to perform, as well as microbiological analysis of the compressed air, appropriate risk analysis of the frequency and mesh size etc etc.
Greetings,
There is no change in what you do in comparison to the previous version of the standard and in practice. In fact even the wording is unchanged. By "point of use" it means that the air needs to be filtered prior to use, it doesn't specify the exact point that you will place the filter. This goes hand-in-hand with the regular filter checks and maintenance that you need to perform, as well as microbiological analysis of the compressed air, appropriate risk analysis of the frequency and mesh size etc etc.
Regards!
Hi Evans,
Actually, I think POU is often interpreted as POA in which case it probably, ideally, does indicate close proximity. The logic is simply to minimise potential contamination in the line(s).
Although you may be correct as far as BRC auditors are concerned, no idea. :smile:
I'm not sure if they are widely used or not, but I do know that you can puchase in-line/modular compressed air filters that can be installed just prior to the point of use. The ones I'm thinking of are quite small and can fit on individual air lines.
For example SMC makes compressed air filters for point of use, and, from memory, they had some hygienic, > IP65 rated filters that would have been suitable for use near exposed food.
Here's a link to some that might do the job?