Help Shape the Next Generation of Hygienic Equipment Design Standards

Five 3-A Sanitary Standards and Accepted Practices are up for review, and 3-A SSI wants your expertise in the room while it happens.

We’re inviting industry professionals to join five new Ad Hoc Working Groups covering insulated tanks, blending equipment, leak-protector valves, pasta filata cheese moulders and HTST/HHST pasteurizer systems. If you design this equipment, run it on a plant floor or inspect it for a living, this is your chance to help write the rules that govern it.

Applications are due September 27, 2026.

Why Your Voice Matters

Standards work only when the people who live with the equipment every day help write them. 3-A SSI frames the opportunity around three things a volunteer brings to the table: real-world expertise, technical collaboration and, ultimately, industry impact. Every Working Group session is a chance to put your experience directly into a document that fabricators, processors and regulators will all rely on.

Tara Schuelke of Hilmar Cheese Co., who has served on a 3-A SSI Working Group, put it this way: "3-A SSI's Working Groups grow your connections with subject matter experts in the sanitary standards community across numerous industries and a range of participants, from equipment manufacturers to regulatory and consumer product producers."

Who Should Participate?

3-A SSI is looking for three kinds of expertise:

• Fabricators. Equipment manufacturers, designers and engineers who build the systems these standards describe.
• Users and processors. Plant engineering, operations, QA, sanitation and food safety professionals who run the equipment day to day.
• Regulatory and technical experts. Regulators, inspectors, sanitarians, researchers and hygienic design specialists who evaluate it.

Five Projects Looking for Volunteers

• Insulated Tanks (01 09). Covers hygienic requirements for insulated tanks that store product or solutions, including at a maintained temperature, installed horizontally or vertically when the inside height is 10 feet or less.
• Blending Equipment (35 04). Covers equipment that combines or mixes wet or dry products, from the hopper or infeed pipe connection through the exit pipe fitting.
• Inlet and Outlet Leak Protector Plug Type Valves (56 00). Covers inlet and outlet leak-protector plug-type valves used with milk and milk products in batch pasteurizers.
• Italian Type Pasta Filata Style Cheese Moulders (71 01). Covers Italian-type pasta filata style cheese moulding equipment used for mozzarella, string and provolone cheese, from the point cooked and stretched cheese enters to the point finished cheese is discharged.
• High-Temperature Short-Time (HTST) and Higher-Heat Shorter-Time (HHST) Pasteurizer Systems (603 07). Covers construction, installation, testing and operation requirements for High-Temperature Short-Time and Higher-Heat Shorter-Time pasteurization equipment and controls.

What Onboarding Looks Like

3-A SSI has built a straightforward path for new volunteers: an orientation on how the process works and a welcome packet with materials to help support participation. All volunteers selected to serve on a Working Group will attend a kick-off meeting with the Working Group's technical lead. Service entails working sessions to review the existing Standard and ongoing support from 3-A SSI staff.

Volunteers can serve as a voting member, who reviews and votes on proposed changes, or as an observer, who follows the discussion and contributes expertise along the way.

From Industry Input to Impact

Volunteer input moves through a defined path, from idea to published standard. Industry experience enters the discussion first, then goes through technical review, where Working Group members compare notes, challenge assumptions and refine the details.

Once the group reaches consensus, the proposal goes to a formal ballot. A successful vote produces a revised 3-A Standard or Accepted Practice that fabricators, processors and regulators can put to use.

Applications to join a Working Group are due September 27, 2026. Sign up for a project at https://resources.3-a.org/wg-canvassing or contact 3-A SSI at WG@3-A.org with questions.