Getting certified: Hygienic design strengthens food safety

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Getting certified: Hygienic design strengthens food safety

1 May 2026

Maddie Lambert

Maddie Lambert is a copywriter and editor from Joplin, MO. She graduated from Missouri Southern State University with a Bachelor of Arts in English – literary studies. When she’s not poring over the magazine or lost in the pages of a new novel, you can find Maddie exploring her local bookstores, spending time with her husband, or sharing her latest literary discoveries with fellow book enthusiasts.

KANSAS CITY, MO — Food safety is a shared responsibility and an integral part of commercial baking production … and it doesn’t just start with conventional cleaning protocols. True safety can be traced back to the original design of the equipment used in commercial bakeries.

Without hygienically designed equipment, a baker’s time spent sanitizing rises exponentially … resulting in longer downtime, reduced production, and more time spent disassembling, cleaning and reassembling. Equipment manufacturers must adhere to rigorous regulations and standards not only to maintain compliance but also to protect consumer health and safeguard brand reputation.

This is where the American Society of Baking (ASB) and the Baking Equipment Assessment Group (BEAG) offer answers in an ocean of questions.

The two associations work together to uphold industry benchmarks for food safety and sanitation in the commercial baking industry. They maintain the American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) standards for commercial bakery equipment: the ANSI/ASB-Z50.1 standard for safety requirements, and the ANSI/ASB-Z50.2 standard for sanitation requirements for bakery equipment.

About the CIEE

To train bakers on how hygienic design affects food safety, cleanability, GMP compliance and overall operations, BEAG developed the Certified Internal Equipment Evaluator Training Course (CIEE). The four-module online course includes a downloadable copy of the ANSI/ASB/Z50.2-2015 standard and more than six hours of interactive educational content.

“It turns the standard into an applied competence and then gives the manufacturers a disciplined way to evaluate the equipment so they can call it certified,” said Sarah Day, director of education and standards for ASB and newly elected managing consultant for BEAG. “It gives a framework and structure to the process and helps people understand what it means for something to truly be hygienically designed from all different aspects.”

“The equipment design is foundational as part of the food safety and hygienic design process. Yes, it’s the baker’s responsibility to clean the machine properly, but the machine has to be designed in a way that makes it easy to clean … that’s the key.” — Sarah Day | director of education | American Society of Baking

The self-paced course helps create a common language between manufacturers, bakers, auditors and regulators around what hygienic design should look like in bakery equipment. While a machine can look clean on the outside, it might not be hygienically designed.

“It shouldn’t be trapping product inside where you can’t access it,” Day explained. “The equipment design is foundational as part of the food safety and hygienic design process. Yes, it’s the baker’s responsibility to clean the machine properly, but the machine has to be designed in a way that makes it easy to clean … that’s the key.”

Participants will engage with general principles applicable to the wide range of equipment used in commercial bakeries, from donut fryers to dough sheeters and everything in between. The course brings the standard to life, breaks it down, and colors in any missing spaces. To finish the program, participants must pass a final exam with a score of 80% or higher. Upon completion of the CIEE, equipment can be certified through BEAG’s Recognition of Conformity.

The ‘why’ behind hygienic design

Adopting hygienic design principles and implementing the certification’s formal evaluation process puts companies in stronger positions to reduce contamination risks, support audits, improve sanitation efficiency and build customer confidence.

“For the baker, it means they will have less labor tied up in cleaning, faster changeovers, and greater assurance,” Day said. “For the consumers, they trust their food is being produced on a certified piece of equipment that meets the requirements.”

Food safety can be a headache, requiring time and energy investments that could be used elsewhere in the operation. But the CIEE, in addition to BEAG, can provide reprieve from the noise.

For more information on the course, visit the BEAG website.

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