Standardization News

The scope of ASTM International’s food service equipment committee (F26) states that food service equipment is “apparatus intended for use in commercial and institutional establishments for handling, storage, preparation, cooking, holding, display, dispensing, and/or the serving of food which, at the time of serving, is ready for direct consumption on or off the premises.” As if that’s not enough, the scope further notes, “Also included are cleaning, sanitation and ancillary items associated with food preparation and service.”

While this all might seem like a full plate, standards can help. They can be used to help prevent contamination outbreaks and to make kitchens more energy efficient for restaurant owners, which can help to save money and make the industry more sustainable. 

Join host Dave Walsh, editor-in-chief, Standardization News, as he speaks to two leading food service industry experts. Adam Spitz, commercial food service industry specialist with ICF. Charlie Souhrada, vice president, regulatory and technical affairs, North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers. 

EXCERPT:
Dave Walsh: Many of ASTM’s food services standards also address the issue of sustainability, largely through energy efficiency. Can you talk about some of the standards that help make commercial kitchen appliances and other equipment more energy efficient?

Charlie Souhrada: There's an excellent example of this found in a component inspection program that combines energy efficiency verification testing found in the Energy Star program with quarterly product safety factory auditing. In 2011 an ad hoc group of NAFA members started working with the EPA on this program, which makes the Energy Star verification process more efficient than having separate Energy Star and factory safety audit processes. And this combines the results saving manufacturers in particular significant amounts of time and money. The program was tested with steam cookers or was piloted with that particular product category and approved to be successful. And since then, F 26 has partnered with NAFA and EPA to expand the program and keep it moving forward. And so that's very exciting because it represents a way to engage manufacturers and the government entity as well as the standard setting body.

Adam Spitz: I think that is an example of industry coming together through ASTM and working with federal government coming up with a solution and or reducing the burden on the industry. So, thanks for bringing that up Charlie. I would also say that the Energy Star program and other utility incentive programs in general are also perfect examples. Generally speaking of how the standards further innovation, the standards allow the industry to analyze the performance characteristics of what all the equipment and provides insight on the potential for areas of improvement. It opens the door to a healthy competitive market which further drives innovation. If you look back a couple of years ago, or decades I should say, at the energy performance of some of the standard equipment used in commercial kitchens, the performance numbers, such as the cooking, energy efficiency and idle rates were so much lower than they are today. So we wouldn't understand that if we didn't have these standard test methods that the industry's worked so hard to develop and maintain over the years. Fortunately we do, and I interpret these standards as like tools or vehicles that have successfully been leveraged by the industry to encourage development of more energy efficient equipment. So without the standards, we wouldn't have that baseline to understand where there are areas for improvement or it would be a little bit more objective and it wouldn't be standardize. ■

Rich Wilhelm is the news editor with Standardization News.