Hygiene / food law

The Hygiene Committee’s main goal is to make sure that every vending experience is safe and hygienic. It also works at promoting the best quality so as to continuously raise the profile of the vending industry. Irreproachable hygiene alone will not ensure a quality experience. The Hygiene Committee is a strong promoter of implementing quality systems designed by the industry for the use of individual companies. A number of National Associations have their own quality systems.

The EVA has issued a position on the report by MEP, Mr. Sommer, concerning the provision of food information to consumers. For more information please follow this link.

The secret behind a great vending experience is an excellent product, a perfect machine and optimum maintenance/cleaning. In a highly competitive environment with demanding consumers, the vending industry must offer a great vending experience every time.

There are, broadly speaking, two types of vending machines:

• machines selling pre-packed products for which the main provisions will regard storage condition, traceability, sell by date and, where relevant, temperature levels;
• machines that “manufacture” products by processing ingredients, such as water and powders or syrups. In that case, operators have to abide by much more complex rules.

EU food law has been changed profoundly over the last few years as a result of food crises and scandals. The aim of the new legislation package is to increase and maintain the consumers’ trust in their food. The spirit is that of HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point), a system developed to prevent astronauts from being intoxicated or poisoned by food whilst in space. All hygiene legislation is based on HACCP principles, which are built on a prevention/control/correction loop. With an increasing number and variety of products being made available in vending machines, hygiene is non negotiable. This is the message that underpins all the work of the Hygiene Committee.

In order to achieve this, the Committee has produced several documents, guidance notes and software so that the vending companies, whatever their size, have practical tools to decode and implement complex concepts and legislation, namely; hygiene and traceability. The next level is to support National Associations in their effort to promote quality systems with their members. This is an ongoing process whereby members are constantly reminded that their worst enemy is complacency.

To support the industry, the Hygiene Committee has developed a guide for vending “The Essentials of Hygiene”,  that  describes the basic principles to which a route filler must abide when dealing with a machine (how to clean one’s hands, how to handle the cups, etc). The Hygiene Committee has also developed a CD-Rom “Food Safety Management For Vending”, to  help operators establish a HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) plan. It is a user friendly, interactive CD–Rom that supports quality managers in their implementation of the European Commission regulation EC (2004) 852 on the hygiene of foodstuffs.