Designing Food Facility: Drainage System

In our day to day lives how much attention do we give our bowels? All our focus is on the tongue and stomach
at best. Beyond that we forget about what goes on. On similar lines, the drainage is often forgotten in our
obsession for product taste, packaging and the like and it can come back to haunt us.

A badly designed drainage system can become a nightmare for any food processing unit. Drains that are hard
to clean increase the microbial loads and those that do not meet the carrying capacity get chocked very often
and cause water stagnation. This can create extra problems for food safety and may lead to stop production. 

So what are the things that you should be aware of while designing your facility? Here are a few pointers

Type of load

It is important to understand what the drains will be carrying. For

example if it is a dairy plant, the drains would carry only the milk
spillage and water from cleaning and these can flow easily. On the
other hand, if you are designing a kitchen then the drains would
need to carry a slurry of food which is dense and may contain
chunks of food. In such scenarios creating adequate traps and interceptors to collect and remove the food
waste is critical.

Carrying Capacity

The classic question that always comes is how big should be the drain. You don’t want to make them too big
cause it cost money and you never want to make them too small as they would clog. A good way to estimate
the carrying capacity is to start with the amount of water you hope to use. After you have estimated the volume,
next is the rate. Your SOPs are a good way to
estimate what is the maximum flow and the timings
when this would happen (typically during cleaning).

Direction of Flow

The general rule of thumb while designing a

drainage system is that the drains should flow from
the high risk area to the low risk area. Drains sheath

a large number of
pathogenic
microbes both as
free living as well
as in the form of
biofilms. If not
taken care of
properly, these
microbes can easily become serious food safety hazards.

Other things that need to be considered while planning a drainage system are placement of the drains, ease of
installation and cleaning and simplicity of maintenance and repairs. You also need to be mindful of your
country’s regulation where you may be required to process your effluent before connecting it to the public
utility.

The EHEDG (European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group) has designed good practice principles for the
drainage system. These principles of hygienic design require channels to have completely drainable sumps and
a minimal slope of 1% longitudinal and cross all areas. Drainage channels should have slopes to avoid
stagnation of water, odours, microbial growth and potential chemical hazards.

EHEDG states that lap joints cannot be welded hygienically because welding creates a void which will harbour
bacteria. EHEDG guidelines also require all corners to be rounded as they are easy to clean. To ensure every part
of the drainage surface is easily accessible and to meet best practice guidelines, drainage should feature
rounded corners with minimum radii of 3mm to 4mm.

In the Indian context, FSSAI guidelines say that the drainage system should be designed and constructed so that
the risk of contaminating food or potable water supply is avoided. It further specifies the gradient that should
be at least one foot for every 100 feet in linear distance. It should be smooth, preferably tiled in all three sides.
The drain shall be covered in the food processing area with removable grills filters or any other removable
fittings. There shall be cockroach trap in all trapping area to prevent re-entry of pest from outer environment
into food area. There shall be such traps of filters at the end of these drains at the landing end of these drains to
prevent the re-entry of all these animals.

Drainage and cleaning are the pre-requisites of an effective HACCP system and hence it is very important to
think about the kind of drainage system required by the facility. Drains, cleaning processes and flooring should
always be planned holistically as they all directly impact upon each other’s performances. Dedicating time and