What is most important in your food plant? When you consider constructing, renovating, or updating your food plant, you have to start somewhere. It is best to consult a firm with extensive food plant design experience. They can help you make the process go much easier, because, honestly, the task can be daunting. There is so much to do and so much to think about.

Below is a top ten checklist for which to start the process. If you don't know where to start, this is where you need to look. From floors to sanitation systems, this all-encompassing list of concepts is bound to help you and your company. Don't begin construction without it. Get ready, because here we go:

Floors: Look down. See that surface beneath your feet? That surface is the first concept you need to consider. Floors are under constant strain from the physical abuse of heavy traffic, thermal shock from temperature variations between cleanup and operation, and chemical attack from harsh cleaning chemicals. The correct material, proper preparation, and careful application will prevent premature failure of flooring from the abuse that they undergo.

Freezer Floors: You can't keep your stuff cold if your freezer floor is suffering from a consistent earthquake. All joking aside, freezer floor slabs are subject to heaving if not designed properly. There are various methods, such as air tubes, heat tracing, and glycol, along with a properly insulated floor, that can be applied to prevent freezer floors slabs from heaving.

Condensation: Condensation will occur in improperly refrigerated environments. This is a special concern in meat plant design. The problems often stem from improper vapor barrier in insulated panel construction (such as the one pictured below), vapor pressure issues, or infiltration/ex-filtration between different types of rooms. Don't let the water seep in and ruin your product. Proper identification of how each of these issues may occur is critical to to prevent condensation from occurring.

Walls: Remember when Humpty Dumpty sat on his wall and had a great fall? Don't let that kind of "wall abuse" occur in your plant. Walls are subject to physical abuse from traffic and chemical abuse from cleaning chemicals. Proper specification and application of materials that can withstand the physical and chemical abuse is critical in order to protect food plant walls.

Floor drains: Floor drains are a source of potential contamination. Installing sanitary floor drains that are easy to clean while designing a process waste system that minimizes the potential for contaminating food is critical to food safety. If your floor drains aren't designed properly, there will likely be quite a mess to clean up. Yuck.

Lights: Food plant lighting fixtures must be easy to clean and maintain. Sometimes they must be able to handle washing. Energy efficiency is a key concern as well; everyone is going green these days, and installing the proper lighting (like in the picture below) is a good way to do it!

Pipes and conduits: In a food-processing facility, piping and conduit materials must be sanitary on the interior and exterior (like the ones shown below). Proper application of sanitary materials that are can withstand the abuse of chemical cleaning and hold up to temperature variations is critical.

Air conditioning/refrigeration: Brrrr! Is it cold in here? Air contacts exposed food products in a facility and can cause both quality and contamination issues. Air balance and filtration is critical to maintain an environment for the safe production of food, especially for ready to eat products .

Equipment utilities:Food-processing equipment can require different types of energy sources to operate, and sometimes choices can be made between sources. Choosing the most efficient and cost effective source of energy is critical for controlling production costs. This is a great concern in bakery design. Basically, don't spend a boatload of unnecessary cash on equipment that doesn't do its job.

Sanitation systems: Many types of sanitation systems exist, both wet and dry. The correct temperature and pressure requirements for wet cleanup as well as the various options for heating, circulation, and delivery of water are important for both energy use and sanitation effectiveness. Without sanitation, you would be constructing a waste dump like the one below. It looks pleasant, right?

Well, there you have it. Now go design a plant! (or find someone to do it for you).