Paragraph 2 PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS

Agri-foodstuffs machinery

• In addition to the essential health and safety requirements set out in 1 above, where machinery is intended to prepare and process foodstuffs (eg cooking, refrigeration, thawing, washing, handling, packaging, storage, transport or distribution), it must be so designed and constructed as to avoid any risk of infection, sickness or contagion and the following hygiene rules must be observed:

  1. (a)

     materials in contact, or intended to come into contact, with the foodstuffs must satisfy the conditions set down in the relevant Directives. The machinery must be so designed and constructed that these materials can be cleaned before each use;

  2. (b)

     all surfaces including their joinings must be smooth, and must have neither ridges nor crevices which could harbour organic materials;

  3. (c)

     assemblies must be designed in such a way as to reduce projections, edges and recesses to a minimum. They should preferably be made by welding or continuous bonding. Screws, screwheads and rivets may not be used except where technically unavoidable;

  4. (d)

     all surfaces in contact with foodstuffs must be easily cleaned and disinfected, where possible after removing easily dismantled parts. The inside surfaces must have curves of a radius sufficient to allow thorough cleaning;

  5. (e)

     liquid deriving from foodstuffs as well as cleaning, disinfecting and rinsing fluids should be able to be discharged from the machine without impediment (possibly in a “clean” position);

  6. (f)

     machinery must be so designed and constructed as to prevent any liquids or living creatures, in particular insects, entering, or any organic matter accumulating in areas that cannot be cleaned (eg for machinery not mounted on feet or casters, by placing a seal between the machinery and its base, by the use of sealed units, etc);

  7. (g)

     machinery must be so designed and constructed that no ancillary substances (eg lubricants, etc) can come into contact with foodstuffs. Where necessary, machinery must be designed and constructed so that continuing compliance with this requirement can be checked.

• Instructions

• In addition to the information required in section 1, the instructions must indicate recommended products and methods for cleaning, disinfecting and rinsing (not only for easily accessible areas but also where areas to which access is impossible or unadvisable, such as piping, have to be cleaned in situ).

Portable hand-held and/or hand-guided machinery

• In addition to the essential health and safety requirements set out in 1 above, portable hand-held and/or hand-guided machinery must conform to the following essential health and safety requirements:

  • according to the type of machinery, it must have a supporting surface of sufficient size and have a sufficient number of handles and supports of an appropriate size and arranged to ensure the stability of the machinery under the operating conditions foreseen by the manufacturer;

  • except where technically impossible or where there is an independent control, in the case of handles which cannot be released on complete safety, it must be fitted with start and stop controls arranged in such a way that the operator can operate them without releasing the handles;

  • it must be designed, constructed or equipped to eliminate the risks of accidental starting and/or continued operation after the operator has released the handles. Equivalent steps must be taken if this requirement is not technically feasible;

  • portable hand-held machinery must be designed and constructed to allow, where necessary, a visual check of the contact of the tool with the material being processed.

• Instructions

  • The instructions must give the following information concerning vibrations transmitted by hand-held and hand-guided machinery;

    • the weighted root mean square acceleration value to which the arms are subjected, if it exceeds 2.5m/s² as determined by the appropriate test code. Where the acceleration does not exceed 2.5m/s², this must be mentioned.

  If there is no applicable test code, the manufacturer must indicate the measurement methods and conditions under which measurements were made.

Machinery for working wood and analogous materials

• In addition to the essential and safety requirements set out in 1 above, machinery for working wood and machinery for working materials with physical and technological characteristics similar to those of wood, such as cork, bone, hardened rubber, hardened plastic material and other similar stiff material must conform to the following essential health and safety requirements:

  1. (a)

     the machinery must be designed, constructed or equipped so that the piece being machined can be placed and guided in safety; where the piece is hand-held on a work-bench the latter must be sufficiently stable during the work and must not impede the movement of the piece;

  2. (b)

     where the machinery is likely to be used in conditions involving the risk of ejection of pieces of wood, it must be designed, constructed or equipped to eliminate this ejection, or, if this is not the case, so that the ejection does not engender risks for the operator and/or exposed persons;

  3. (c)

     the machinery must be equipped with an automatic brake that stops the tool in a sufficiently short time if there is a risk of contact with the tool whilst it runs down;

  4. (d)

     where the tool is incorporated into a non-fully automated machine, the latter must be so designed and constructed as to eliminate or reduce the risk of serious accidental injury, for example by using cylindrical cutter blocks, restricting depth of cut, etc.