Integrating Proper Cable Protection and Wire Management Solutions to Meet Today’s Food Safety Requirements

Ty-Rap TyGenic install Farbest Foods Inc., Vincennes, Indiana facility

A food safety recall is a nightmare for food manufacturers and processors. Food safety is the number one concern that keeps plant personnel up at night. Just one food safety recall can potentially put a company out of business or make it difficult or near impossible to recover.

Consumers grow to love brands and, in some cases, will be loyal for a lifetime or until an event like a recall occurs. In addition to brand deterioration and loss of trust, significant market shrinkage may result from consumers temporarily—or even permanently—discontinuing the use of a brand after a recall. Furthermore, a food safety recall can harm the consumer in the form of illness or even death, which can result in criminal liability and millions of dollars in fines and restitution—all because of a single food safety recall.

The average cost of a food safety recall is estimated to be around $10 million. Over the past 10–15 years, we have seen recalls far exceed this estimate, as well as food processing employees brought up on criminal charges and sentenced to prison. Food safety legislation is becoming more and more stringent to protect consumers. As a result, the food and beverage processing and manufacturing industry is taking a proactive approach to prevent potential food safety recalls. An important step in preventing potential food safety recalls is integrating proper cable protection and wire management solutions.

ABB Installation Products, formerly Thomas & Betts, has a long history of cable tie innovation, introducing Ty-Rap® cable ties in 1953 and Ty-Rap® detectable cable ties around 15 years ago before the Food Safety Modernization Act was signed into law in 2011. While traditional detectable cable ties address one aspect of food safety by helping identify potential foreign contaminants in a product, they do not prevent bacteria contamination to meet today's food safety standards. Current food safety legislation requires more hygienically designed products to help prevent product contamination. Cable ties, by nature, are not a hygienically designed product and can easily trap food particles. If a traditional detectable cable tie with no antimicrobial protection becomes contaminated, then bacteria can easily transfer to the food or beverage product and find its way from the plant to consumers—leading to costly recalls, reputational damage, investigations, and criminal liability.

Working with food and beverage facilities to implement electrical solutions and critical safeguards, ABB received requests for a cable tie product that meets food and beverage processors’ needs to prevent product contamination and allow standardization on one cable tie from start to finish of the production process. To give food and beverage processors and manufacturers peace of mind about product contamination, the ABB Installation Products team developed an innovative solution that addresses both foreign body contamination with triple detectability and inhibits antimicrobial growth: the first two-piece Ty-Rap® TyGenic™ antimicrobial detectable cable tie.

Features and benefits of ABB's Ty-Rap® TyGenic™ antimicrobial plus detectable cable ties include:

In conjunction with a partner distributor in Indiana, ABB Installation Products presented the Ty-Rap TyGenic cable tie to Farbest Foods Inc., a company that is always looking for new and innovative solutions to improve its operations and increase food safety across every area of production. Farbest demonstrated its commitment to food safety when it became an early adopter of Ty-Rap TyGenic cable ties.

Eric Gladish, Director of Maintenance and Refrigeration for Farbest Foods, oversees facility and maintenance at the Vincennes and Huntingburg plants. Gladish had this to say about the Ty-Rap TyGenic cable tie: "Adopting the TyGenic cable tie allowed us [Farbest] to simplify and standardize the cable ties used in our plant since it is the only cable tie that offers both antimicrobial and detectable properties."

Today, Ty-Rap TyGenic cable ties are a key solution for every food and beverage processing and manufacturing company that wants to help ensure its bottom line and protect its customers. Integrating Ty-Rap TyGenic cable ties in their operation enables companies to standardize on one cable tie across their entire process and easily increase the degree of food safety in any production plant.

*Note: Ty-Rap® TyGenic™ antimicrobial detectable cable ties provide no antimicrobial inhibitory activity beyond protection of the cable ties themselves. They do not provide protection against specific pathogenic organisms, nor do they prevent growth of bacteria on adjacent or nearby surfaces. The antimicrobial efficacy of the material is designed to last for the life of the cable tie under normal use conditions.

Part of its Electrification business area, ABB Installation Products Division, formerly Thomas & Betts, is a global leader in the design, manufacture, and marketing of products used to manage the connection, protection, and distribution of electrical power in industrial, construction, transportation, and utility applications. With more than 200,000 products under 38 premium brand names, ABB Installation Products solutions can be found wherever electricity is used.

Recall Source:

https://coughlinis.com/the-cost-of-food-recalls-2022.

FSMA Law signed

https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/animal-food-feeds/food-safety-modernization-act-and-animal-food.

Brian Barr, Industry Segment Specialist for Food and Beverage, ABB