Search
Menu
The first standards for the hygienic design of equipment used in the dairy industry were introduced in the 1920s and became known as "3-A standards" for the three interest groups that cooperated to improve equipment design and sanitation - regulatory sanitarians, equipment fabricators, and processors.
This collaboration continues today in the not-for-profit corporation 3-A Sanitary Standards, Inc., dedicated to the mission of advancing food safety through hygienic equipment design. The membership consists of three associations: International Dairy Foods Association, Food Processing Suppliers Association, the International Association for Food Protection and representatives of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
3-A SSI maintains an extensive inventory of design criteria for equipment and processing systems, oversees the 3-A Symbol Authorization program and other voluntary certificates to help affirm the integrity of hygienic processing equipment and systems and provides extensive knowledge resources to support the training and education needs in the rapidly changing food, beverage, and pharmaceutical industries.
