ANSI style flanges in food processing

[adirondackweldor]

All of my experience is in the pharma field, but our facility has a shot at a small food grade project. We have a process tank that has been out of use for a while and the admin folks want to use it for this project. The problem is this tank has ANSI style flanges on all of its nozzles, and from my limited experience these are not suitable for a food grade application. However, I haven't been able to find any concrete statement of this in any of the literature that I have. ASME BPE-2005 doesn't even mention the possibility. Can anyone point me in the direction of any literature that discusses the use or prohibition of these types of connections food processing equipment?

 

[TechThreads]

Question 1 is what do you mean by "food grade"... no offense, but it's kind of a nothing term. I used to work with plenty of plans that used standard ANSI class 150# materials for food grade stuff... i.e. flanged ball valves, 304 pipe, Garlock gaskets, etc. etc.

Remember, most "potable" water is carried through carbon steel piping...

 

[adirondackweldor]

We generally do medical devices, wound washes, eye washes, and the like. Some with PW, some WFI as the major component. This product was to be an energy drink concentrate made with a flavoring and PW. The concentrated flavorings apparently are a real bear to clean. Thus management's desire to keep it out of our "good" tanks. This vessel was purchased off the used market a few years ago before my time. I don't know anything about its history. It has a mixture of straight up ANSI class 150# nozzles, and ANSI class 150# with tri-clamp adapters. It is single wall with two threaded piercings in the side for a heating coil I'm guessing. These are issues that would IMO disqualify it for med device use, but it might be acceptable for what I am describing. I wish I could find some documentation on the subject. All that said, I just learned that the project is likely dead in the water, but you know how that goes.

 

[ornerynorsk]

NSF would be the place to look for equipment requirements.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.