New Service Ensures Explosive Food Processing Safety

TÜV SÜD Product Service, an international expert in product safety testing, today launches its ATEX Safety Service. The new service will reassure food manufacturers which operate processing facilities that they comply with the European ATEX Workplace Directive. It will also ensure that their workers are safe from a potentially explosive atmosphere, particularly caused by hazards such as flour, sugar and dust.

Jean-Louis Evans, Managing Director of TÜV SÜD Product Service, said: “The ‘explosion directive’ has far reaching consequences for manufacturers. Explosive atmospheres include apparently benign industries such as waste recycling and food processing, not just more obvious ones such as oil & gas or chemicals. The legal repercussions are significant if they get this wrong and a service such as ours provides a simple route to ensure that they get it right.”

TÜV SÜD’s new ATEX Safety Service will support manufacturers to interpret and comply with regulations and reduce the risk to their workers. Comprehensive site safety reviews include the identification of possible ignition sources, equipment inspection, as well as practical control and mitigation techniques.

The service will also assure manufacturers of machinery for use in potentially explosive environments that their equipment complies with the European Directive ATEX 95 – 94/9/EC and will operate safely. As a Notified Body, TÜV SÜD can offer machinery manufacturers product certification of both electrical and non-electrical equipment under the ATEX Product Directive. This will reduce time to market for new products and ensure that existing ones can continue to be sold legally.

The new TÜV SÜD ATEX Safety Service also includes:

· Quality audits – of facilities owned by component and machinery manufacturers.

· Regulatory advice – to help both machinery and end-product manufacturers ensure that they comply with various country-specific regulations.

www.tuvps.co.uk