Baking & Snack - April 2005 - 8

EDITORIAL
The Right Choice

o quote Tom Lewis at the opening of his presentation at the recent American Society
of Baking annual technical conference, "Who is aware of what the acronym 'BISSC'
means?" While most attendees raised their hands, a surprising number did not.
Mr. Lewis proceeded to give a brief history of the organization leading up to
2003 when the Baking Industry Sanitation Standards Committee approached ASB with
the proposal to revise the 40-plus independent standards on the books that pertain to
sanitary design of bakery equipment. BISSC proposed adopting a single standard that met
the necessary criteria of the nationally recognized American National Standards Institute
(ANSI). The focus of the new standard encompasses sanitary design of machinery and
concerns over pathogens as well as a new focus on allergen threats.
Adherence to the ANSI/BISSC/Z50.2-2003 standard, which specifies sanitary design aspects of various equipment groups, is either through self-certification or third-party verification - working with the American Institute of Baking and AIB International - and
allows qualifying equipment to display a corresponding sticker affirming compliance. The
manufacturer must purchase the label from BISSC under management of AIB.
The only change, which will be effective in 2006 - and the main reason to present a paper
at ASB - will be the requirement that suppliers be AIB-trained if they wish to continue
self-certification. Third-party certification will remain unchanged.
Mr. Lewis was quite passionate in his remarks and certainly got the crowd's attention.
Several sardonic yet thoughtful comments were made to me after the presentation to the
effect of "Who is going to regulate, enforce and oversee this? Will all equipment now have
to be washdown, including packaging machines? Are bakers going to be willing to pay for
all the equipment redesign costs? If I become AIB-trained, can I go into a bakery and claim
that my competitor's machine is not certified and force the bakery to shut down operations
or threaten to call the local inspector? Of course, that might not be in my best interest as a
prospective supplier, but it sounds like I could do just that."
Clearly, there are some questions and misunderstandings as to the expectations,
extent and execution of the ANSI/BISSC standard and its upcoming changes. However, key objectives in these changes, according to Phil Domenicucci of AMF Bakery
Machinery, Richmond, VA, are to add new and higher levels of respect for the standard
from the local sanitation and inspection community. The standard continues to allow
the industry to regulate itself, instead of having to rely upon and pay a broad-based
organization such as the National Safety Foundation (NSF). Local health inspectors
and sanitarians, familiar only with NSF and not BISSC, can now deal with AIB, a wellknown and accredited auditing entity.
"We don't anticipate the need to revolutionize equipment design, but it will naturally continue to evolve," Mr. Domenicucci said. "Also, if
equipment manufacturers have been accurate in their selfcertification while in the BISSC program, the AIB training
just gives them another layer of credibility. If they haven't
really met the standard, they may have some concerns."
Either way, the modification does merit industry support.
While clarification of the rules may be in order, honesty and
integrity between suppliers are musts for the betterment of
the industry.
- Steve Berne, Editor
sberne@sosland.com

10 / BAKING & SNACK / April 2005

Baking&Snack
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Baking & Snack - April 2005

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