Shape the Standards That Shape Your Equipment

Every 3-A Sanitary Standard and Accepted Practice starts in a room full of people who know the equipment: processors, fabricators, and regulators. They bring different priorities to the table. That mix of perspectives is what makes a Standard work in the real world.

Right now, observer seats are available on 10 active Ad Hoc Working Groups:

• Insulated Tanks (01-09), which establishes hygienic requirements for insulated tanks used to store product or solutions, including at a maintained temperature, installed horizontally or vertically when the inside height is 10 feet or less.
• Silo-Type Tanks (22-08), which lays out hygienic requirements for holding milk fluid in a non-agricultural environment.
• Non-Coil Type Batch Processors (25-03), which is useful in the heating, cooling, or processing of liquid products.
• Blending Equipment (35-04), which sets minimum hygienic requirements for equipment used to combine or mix wet or dry products, from the entrance of the hopper or infeed pipe connection through the exit pipe fitting.
• Mechanical Conveyors for Dry Products: Standards (41-03), which relates to conveyors used to move dry product through a processing line.
• Inlet and Outlet Leak Protector Plug Type Valves (56-00), which addresses the sanitary aspects, design, materials and fabrication criteria for leak-protector plug valves used with milk and milk products in batch pasteurizers.
• Disc-Type Valves (57-02), which addresses rotating valves used on equipment in a dairy processing system.
• Italian Type Pasta Filata Style Cheese Moulders (71-01), which establishes hygienic criteria for equipment used to mould mozzarella, string and provolone cheese, from the point cooked and stretched cheese is introduced to the point finished cheese is discharged.
• High-Temperature Short-Time (HTST) and Higher-Heat Shorter-Time (HHST) Pasteurizer Systems (603-07), which establishes hygienic requirements for the construction, installation, testing and operation of High-Temperature Short-Time and Higher-Heat Shorter-Time pasteurization equipment, appurtenances and controls.
• Supplying Air Under Pressure (604-05), which pertains to equipment and filters used to supply air in processing of dairy products.

Why Observe?

Standards decisions don’t happen in a vacuum, and they don’t happen overnight. Observers watch them take shape. You’ll get real-time insight into the direction of technical discussions affecting the equipment that matters to you, long before a draft reaches public comment.

That vantage point pays off in three ways:

• You stay informed.  Get real-time insight into the technical discussions affecting the Standards for equipment that matters to you.
• Share what you know. Bring your field experience to the group, in accordance with the working group process.
• Grow your network. Connect with fabricators, processors, regulators and other subject-matter experts across the sanitary standards community.

Although observers may not vote on draft documents, they can be asked to participate as a voting member if a voting member seat becomes open.

Built on Volunteers

The 3-A Sanitary Standards and Accepted Practices development process relies on the expertise of volunteers who participate in Ad Hoc Working Group meetings. That has always been the model, and it is why 3-A documents carry the weight they do.

Pick Me, Pick Me!

Ready to raise your hand? Apply now to serve as an observer.‍