Food Industry Doors
Food safe doors, Food safe fire doors, Hinged/Sliding, Seamless design
“FDA recommends that the processing facility and its structures (such as walls, ceilings, floors, windows, doors, vents, and drains) be designed to be easy to clean and maintain and to protect the product from microbial, physical, and chemical contamination. For example, designing food contact surfaces to be smooth, nonabsorbent, smoothly bonded, without niches, and sealed would make these surfaces easier to clean and thus, would prevent the harborage of microbial pathogens”. FDA US. Food and Drug Administration
“Doors must be easy to clean and, where necessary, disinfect. This will require the use of smooth non-absorbent surfaces”. The Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) regulations 1995 Chapter 11.1.(e)
The food industry must maintain high standards of cleanliness when manufacturing products. Food processing represents a working environment which places extraordinarily high and specific demands on the operating resources as part of production. In this way, a high degree of hygiene is required in these areas where vigorous cleaning regimes are carried out.
Outstanding hygienic performance
As specialists, working in hygienic environments our products out perform all competing technologies. Our product range is constantly evolving to meet the increasing demands of controlled environments, ensuring that our customers have access to the very latest in door technology. Top quality is the only way to become ‘Supplier of Choice’. Dortek GRP hinged and sliding doors exceed all the above requirements due to their seamless, impervious moulded construction. Dortek GRP doors are lightweight, strong and easy to clean and disinfect with a built-in colour that requires no maintenance. When comparing hygiene performance between two products, e.g GRP & Steel, GRP is a void free door whereas steel doors often contains crevices which allow bacteria to grow undetected.
Our GRP doors have been developed taking into account all regulations within the food industry.
Dortek Doors within the food industry are regularly used in facilities certified by or built to the following standards:
- Current Good Manufacturing Practise (cGMP)
- Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Ease of use
Dortek GRP doors are a lightweight construction which makes the doors easy to operate which is a clear advantage where frequent usage is concerned. Unlike GRP doors, steel doors often end up dropping or become misaligned over time, the hinge potentially weakens due to the weight and excessive wear, this leads to the door dragging and being difficult to operate and therefore non-compliant. A steel door is often used externally for security purpose but they are not ideal in heavy usage areas such as production facilities. When considering life cycle costs, a GRP door is much better value than a steel door. The life expectancy of a GRP door can technically last 25 years, whereas a steel door will often need replacing after 7 years or so. We are often seeing that a steel door in the end is often replaced with a GRP door.
Technical Innovation (Moulding)
The stainless steel mould, from which the Dortek door leaf is produced, has a vertical brushed finish, leaving the same smooth impression on both faces of the finished door. This leaves an attractive and durable finish to the door. The moulding trays are purposely produced to give a radius edge finish to the doors, which allows the fibre glass sheet to be wrapped around and overlapped at the edges. This ensures that both faces of the door are thoroughly joined during the moulding process, eliminating any possibility of the door ‘splitting’ along its edge length. The radius of the mould also eliminates ‘resin rich’ corners where the fibre glass cannot reach as this tends to be very brittle and easily damaged. The resins used are also colour pigmented through the skin giving a more durable finish in the event of impact damage. Dortek are the only manufacturer to laminac (edge seal) all 4 edges of the door as standard, not only the visible ones.
At the forefront of fire resistance technology
Our GRP doors have been fire tested to various international standards and therefore offer the unique combination of fire resistance. Dortek fire doors are unique in that they comply both with the highest levels of Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) and are regularly independently tested for fire intumescent detail.
Our unique tested and certified detail offers uniformity of appearance between fire rated and non- fire rated doors, enhanced aesthetics and hygienic performance and long term durability as the intumescent strip cannot be damaged or removed. We believe that only the Dortek product have been tested and certified with this detail. This detail is particularly relevant as a large number of the doors are fire rated and in food areas.
Dortek prides itself on its ongoing continuous investment in fire testing. You should not be tempted to accept a fire rated door just because it is marketed as ‘approved’. An “approved” door could mean that it is made up of components that are individually listed but never actually fire tested and certified as a complete working doorset. Dortek fire rated doorsets have undergone and successfully completed independent fire tests on a regular basis at UKAS and NAMAS approved Test Laboratories as can be seen below:
- British Standard (BS) 476 Part 22. Methods for determination of the fire resistance of non- load bearing elements of construction.
- European Norm (BS EN) 1634 – 1 : 2008 Fire resistance tests for door and shutter assemblies.
- Singapore Standard SS332 : 2000 Clause 4 Specification for Fire Doors. Singapore Productivity and Standards Board, PSB Listing Scheme : Class 1A
- Singapore Standard SS332 : 2007 Clause 4 Specification for Fire Doors. Singapore Productivity and Standards Board, PSB Listing Scheme : Class 1A
- TUV SUD production facility audit inspection
GRP is suitable for all food applications
Dortek have extensive experience in the food processing sector. GRP doors are suitable for all applications where hygiene & food safety is of the highest requirement. Dortek provide confidence from initial specification through to installation and service. We are committed to end user experience and this has led to our doors being installed in the following facilities worldwide:
- Meat and fish processing
- Dairies
- Infant Nutrition
- Coldstores
- Bakeries
- Dried milk processing
- In-flight catering
- Abatoirs
- Ready meals
- Cheese and Yoghurt Manufacturers
- Supermarkets
- Beverage Manufacturers
- Industrial kitchens (eg. for hospitals, hotels, prisons, armed forces etc)
In each of the above, Dortek GRP doors have withstood the most arduous and aggressive environments including the processing of cheese, chicken and fish every year.
Thorough cleaning and sanitation is becoming increasingly important in all processing environments and certain products on the market are more perishable and hygienically sensitive, particularly convenience foods in pre-packed portions. The microbial load of such products must be low to guarantee adequate shelf life and avoid spoilage during distribution. In this light our doors have been subjected to all chemical disinfection methods and high pressure wash downs and the aesthetics of the doors have remained un-touched due to the unique methods used in constructing a GRP door. These key benefits are:
- Seamless construction, easy to clean.
- Sealing against air, smoke and fire.
- Water resistant.
- Patented concealed hygienic intumescent strip unaffected by atmospheric moisture.
- Proven resistance to harsh cleaning regimes.
- Light weight and user friendly.
- Door frame options to suit different wall constructions.
- Windows completely flush with both sides of the door surface.
Efficient Project Management in the Food Sector
Our in-house teams each have extensive experience in design, development, project management, manufacturing, installation and service. With years’ of experience in specialist bespoke food industry door systems we use our detailed technical know-how to provide a solution based on your needs. Examples of some difficult environments where our door systems are required include:
- Dust
- Noise
- Traffic direction
- Odour
- Privacy
- Cool air/Temperature
At Dortek, we realise the requirements of the food industry and always assess them so that our product is aligned and best suited to your application.
Food Sector Case Studies
| Facilities |
|---|
| Arla |
| Müller |
| Nutricia |
| Wiseman |
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