EHEDG membership for Bunting

14 October, 2020

Bunting is a designer and manufacturer of magnetic separators and metal detectors for the food manufacturing sector. The Bunting European manufacturing facilities are in Redditch, just outside Birmingham, and Berkhamsted.

The EHEDG was founded in 1989 as a non-profit consortium of equipment manufacturers, food producers, suppliers to the food industry, research institutes and universities, public health authorities and governmental organisations. Its principal goal is the promotion of safe food by improving hygienic engineering and design in all aspects of food manufacture.

Bunting designs and manufactures equipment to identify and separate metal contamination during the manufacturing process. Metal contamination is often introduced into a process with the raw materials or occurs following wear or damage to processing equipment.

Magnetic separators, commonly featuring high-strength rare earth magnets, attract, hold and separate magnetically susceptible contamination. Metal Detectors tend to be used later in the process, often as a final check, to identify any ferrous or non-ferrous metal contamination.

Metal contamination is an issue throughout the food processing industry. In 2020 (up to 24 July), the UK Food Standards Agency has issued seven Food Alerts regarding customer-reaching food products contaminated with metal.

Bunting’s range of metal separation solutions is extensive and recent projects include the supply of 15 magnetic liquid filters to a producer of orange juice, fortytwo in-line magnets to a baby food producer, and a magnetic separator audit for Jordans Dorset Ryvita.

By joining the organisation, Bunting has the opportunity for metal separation equipment to be approved by EHEDG to be in compliance with EHEDG criteria. In certain cases, approval may only be granted after testing by a laboratory accredited by a notified body, using EHEDG test methods.

“Our aim is to provide the best metal separation solutions in terms of both operation and product design,” comments Simon Ayling, Bunting’s European managing director. “Joining EHEDG enables an independent approval of the high-standard design and manufacture of our equipment. This is simply another level of reassurance for our customers in the food manufacturing sector."