Our Central Production Unit
Technical Details

The project started way back in 2004 with the purchase of the premises. A lot of planning was needed to make sure that this central production unit will be in conformity with all EU laws and that the workers will have the best working environment possible. An application to obtain EU funds available for expertise was submitted together with the project plans. These funds were approved on a 50/50 basis the money we invested in expertise was matched by the same amount through EU funds. In this respect we engaged the services of a micro biologist as our main expert. Help was also obtained from the Health authorities through the Food Safety Unit to make sure that our Central Production Unit will not only be the best possible but also in conformity with all Maltese and EU laws.

This was just the beginning. A lot of the materials needed to finish and equip this unit had to be imported. This was to make sure that everything used was the latest available on the market and in conformity with the laws and regulations which in this industry are always evolving and improving to give the general public the best product. The finishing works took around two years to complete. It is very important to mention that this production unit has solar heating and an electricity generator equipped with a twenty four hour automatic changeover switch with a capacity of over 160KVA enough to keep our unit going to its full capacity during any power failures. In the meantime our staff was given specialised training to adapt to the new HACCP rules and to make sure that when they arrived in the new kitchen they would adapt to the new work practices required from them in the new environment.

This CPU uses Barrier Contamination Prevention by splitting up the manufacturing processes into different rooms depending on the products used. Rooms are divided as follows:

Cake decorating room - Chill High
Sandwich Room - Preparation of sandwiches that have a three day shelf life.
Meat products room
Cooking room
Washing up area
Main preparation room

The Central Production Unit is divided into three floors. The ground floor is the deliveries floor. It was designed so that vans can drive in and park outside. This was done for two reasons. Firstly it allows products to be loaded / unloaded in all weather conditions. Secondly it allows delivery vans to be connected to the electricity and cooled to the desired temperature before loading products. This loading area is then physically separated from the packaging area by doors, which is where the Deep Freeze chamber and Cold Room are found. Finished products are brought to the ground floor using the Food lift and then immediately transferred to the Cold Room or Deep Freeze depending on the product.

The First Floor is the production Area. The whole floor is dedicated to the production and so was designed for this purpose. The production area is sealed off and is a controlled temperature. The floor is divided into various smaller production rooms. This was done in order to adopt the ‘Barrier Prevention’ approach to the Prevention of cross contamination of bacteria. There is a main production area which houses the automatic machine and then five other smaller rooms that have been divided according to their use. They are discussed in further detail below. The production area have been sealed off through the use of double glazed windows throughout and access to the flow can only be gained from the stairs only which are separated from the production area by a door or through the lift. Staff that work in the production area and in other areas of the CPU have a lab coat which they must wear all the time whilst in the production area. Also the lab coat cannot leave the production Visitors to the production area (maintenance works etc) must wear a plastic, disposable lab coat and a plastic disposable head cap in order to reduce the possibility of the introduction of harmful bacteria into the production area. Also all visitors to the production area are required to sign a visitor’s book for the issue of traceability in the event that a case of food poisoning arises. What enters the production area is also monitored. Raw materials enter the CPU on the ground floor and are stored in the basement as described below. Since production area workers cannot leave the production area whilst in uniform they request the raw materials that they need from the ground floor staff. The raw materials are then unpacked and sent up to the production floor in the Supplies lift. This is done in order to ensure that dangerous packaging such as card boxes, sacks, fresh produce containers, etc do not enter the production area. Since food production requires a large amount of flour that is traditionally transported in sack (a high risk packaging that can bring in harmful bacteria), the CPU has a flour silo located on the ground floor that automatically dispenses flour, as required, on the production floor as requested by the production staff through an automatic dispenser. The flour reaches the CPU in a ‘truck’ rather than sacks in order to further reduce the risk of contamination.

Flooring of the production floor was also chosen with its purpose in mind. The flooring is not made from traditional tiles which have the risk of housing harmful bacteria in cracks or in the cement surrounding them but instead is made from rubber.

The walls of the production floor were also carefully selected so as to reduce harmful bacteria. Once again the use of tiling was avoided completely and instead a system of panelling was employed. Firstly the panelling provides a physical barrier between the production area and the stone wall that makes up the building. This means that the production area is insulated from the effects of weather conditions on Maltese stone as the otherwise should the stone become wet there is the tendency for mould growth.

Temperature is also an important factor for food production. Maltese summers produce temperatures that can raise the temperature of a production facility area very high above the safety temperature to reduce the spread of bacteria. This has been dealt with through the installation of air-conditioners throughout the production floor which help regulate the temperature in the production area.

Once all this was completed work was transferred to the new production unit in the beginning of March 2006.

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Location

19/20
Buttigieg Holdings Ltd,
Triq M. Salvu Pulis,
Tal-Handaq, Qormi

Tel: 2149 1894/5
Fax: 2149 1889