(a) Commissioning: Thoroughly clean and rinse all new or newly renovated equipment before use At least rinse with potable water all equipment before and after use.
(b) Maintenance and maintenance of equipment: Maintenance is a set of planned and systematic operations making it possible to have at any time of material:
in good working order (hygiene and safety of the users);
ready to use
Preventive maintenance also allows: to reduce urgent interventions; optimize the operating budget; improve the availability of equipment and personnel.
Respect the maintenance actions recommended in the manufacturer’s instructions or adapt according to experience gained.
Good maintenance limits the risk of introducing foreign objects such as breakage of glass in wines and wine spirits or accidental contaminations by lubricating products, especially during packaging operations.
Good maintenance practices help to limit the risk of contamination from substances or solvents contained in certain maintenance products not suitable for food contact.
Foreign bodies and especially broken glass are among the dangers to be monitored in the wine sector.
MAINTENANCE PRODUCTS
In the wine sector, maintenance products, and in particular lubricants, are employees at the level of materials used both at the primary production and during the elaboration.
They are used to reduce friction, wear, to protect against corrosion. There is no regulation in Europe on this subject. When buying a product maintenance, it is possible to refer to the American NSF regulations (National Sanitation Foundation). However, the user must check each year whether the products of used maintenance are always allowed for accidental contact with food. Indeed, the certificate issued NFS-H1 is only valid for one year (annual registration of the compound). This avoids the most toxic products but does not guarantee to date safety. Areas requiring special precautions (bottling line). High risk of contact must be identified to monitor the lubrication procedure and avoid contamination due to handling.
MAINTENANCE PLAN
Monitoring of maintenance involves the preservation of documents and may consist of the following elements:
Inventory of material and conformity of materials; request and conservation, for each machine, instructions for use made by the maker ; invoices relating to the maintenance of equipment carried out by service providers (it must specify the actions performed, the parts and supplies used);
establishment of a maintenance sheet for each material to record the external and internal interventions with maximum precision; from this information and technical data sheets of the equipment, implementation of a annual or semi-annual maintenance which can be detailed by a list of controls or systematic maintenance actions to be performed;
written definition of how to proceed with systematic maintenance actions (machine setting, draining, greasing, changing of consumables …);
inventory management of spare parts;
the maintenance plan must also mention the method of use of the products of maintenance, in particular, lubricants for parts likely to come into contact with wines.