EHEDG Meat Processing working group reactivated
We’re pleased to share this feature originally published in the EHEDG (European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group) 2025 Yearbook.
Could you briefly introduce yourselves and your backgrounds?
Olivier Couraud: Hello, my name is Olivier. I have worked in food safety for more than 25 years, including 18 years in sanitation with a cleaning company in France. Since 2023, I have been with CFS (Commercial Food Sanitation), first as a Food Safety Specialist and now as Technical Development Lead for the EMEA region. In this role, I support food factories in managing food safety risks, particularly in sanitation and hygienic design and developing technical solutions to mitigate them.
I became involved with EHEDG in 2009 and became an administrator of EHEDG France the following year. In 2017, I joined the Working Group ‘Meat Processing’ as a member and was appointed Chair during its relaunch in 2023.
Ester Fernández: Hello, my name is Ester. I joined Diversey 20 years ago after completing my degree in chemistry at the University of Girona, Spain. My career initially took me through different industry sectors, but in 2005 I returned to Diversey, where I encountered the food industry and its hygiene challenges for the first time.
Since then, I have mainly focused on the processing sector, what I used to describe as ‘everything that is not liquid’, to distinguish it from dairy and beverages.
I began in Spain as a Sector Specialist supporting the sales team, later expanded my work to Portugal and eventually joined the European team. Today, I am part of the Global team, coordinating the technical aspects of large food industry accounts. I also lead internal trainings, webinars and project development within Diversey, now a Solenis company. Within EHEDG, I participate in some events and recently joined the Working Group ‘Meat Processing’.
"The ultimate goal is to give meat producers practical recommendations to improve food safety, reduce risks and ensure compliance while still meeting production demands."
What are the most critical hygienic design challenges unique to meat processing environments, compared to other areas of the food industry?
Olivier: Meat processing is complex because it spans a wide range of products and processes, from raw meat to cooked and ready-to-eat foods. This variability creates unique hygienic design challenges. You’re dealing with raw livestock material that is inherently less hygienic, while also producing finished products that may be consumed without further processing, like carpaccio or tartare.
The risks are consistent, especially pathogens, but the way we mitigate them varies at each stage. A single facility may involve multiple processing steps, cooking or not and different ingredients. Hygienic design therefore plays a critical role in preventing contamination, ensuring cleanliness and maintaining accessibility.
In ready-to-eat meat processing in particular, the stakes are very high, as there are many steps where contamination can occur.
In your experience, where do current equipment designs or facility layouts often fall short in maintaining hygiene standards in meat processing?
Ester: Over the years I’ve seen significant improvements, but challenges remain. A common saying used to be: “Equipment is designed for production, not for cleaning”. In meat processing, there are thousands of product variations, each with different sizes, shapes, and speeds, requiring dismantling or specialised equipment. This complexity makes it difficult to account for all hygienic aspects.
Often, hygiene risks hide in small details: a hole, a bolt or a piece of equipment with inaccessible parts. While hygienic design principles are universal, the meat sector requires a high degree of customisation.
Another challenge comes from older facilities which were often small operations that expanded over time. This kind of growth makes it difficult to fully adapt existing plants to modern hygienic design standards. While awareness has grown, implementation is not always straightforward in aging infrastructures.
Why was it important to establish a dedicated EHEDG guideline specifically for meat processing and what value do you hope it will bring to the industry?
Olivier: The aim was to go beyond existing EHEDG guidelines, which typically address individual equipment components. For meat processing, we needed a more holistic approach, one that integrates hygienic design principles across an entire process line.
The challenge is that even if 99% of the equipment meets hygienic design standards, the remaining 1% can still compromise the entire line. By creating a dedicated document, we provide meat producers with a clear philosophy of how to implement hygienic design throughout their process, not just at the equipment level.
This guideline also addresses equipment and practices specific to the meat sector that were not sufficiently covered elsewhere.
The ultimate goal is to give meat producers practical recommendations to improve food safety, reduce risks and ensure compliance while still meeting production demands.
Olivier Couraud, Technical Development Lead – EMEA (Commercial Food Sanitation), Chair of the EHEDG Working Group ‘Meat Processing’
Ester Fernández, Global Sector Specialist (Diversey, a Solenis company), member of the EHEDG Working Group ‘Meat Processing’
