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Behind Clean Lines

Behind Clean Lines

By: NGI A/S
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Summary

 Behind Clean Lines is your go-to medium for insights into hygienic manufacturing, innovation, and design.

You'll find expert knowledge on the design process, the strategic drivers, and mind set it takes to push innovation in manufacturing for food and beverage industries forward.

The topics we'll discuss include:
  • Strategic Growth Drivers in Hygienic Manufacturing
  • The Role of Collaboration in Innovation for the Food Industry
  • Product optimization with Hygienic Design
  • ... and much more.

This podcast is brought to you by NGI.

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This podcast is produced by Montanus.NGI A/S Economics Management Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • 21: What Food Equipment OEMs Need to Know About the New 3A Standards

    21: What Food Equipment OEMs Need to Know About the New 3A Standards
    Apr 8 2026
    Food safety incidents don't stay local anymore. A contaminated batch produced in one facility can reach consumers on multiple continents before anyone realises something is wrong. That shift in scale is exactly why the 3-A sanitary standards, a framework that has been evolving for almost a century, continue to matter for everyone who designs, buys, or operates food production equipment.

    In this episode of Behind Clean Lines, host Mikkel Svold is joined by two guests with very different relationships to hygienic design.
    • Gabe Miller is a 3-A Certified Conformative Evaluator (CCE) who served as chair of the committee that developed the 3-A General Standards. He has spent his career inspecting food production equipment for compliance, and he continues to collaborate with EHEDG as a trainer at their conferences.

    • Tue Skrubbeltrang is Sales Director for EMEA and APAC at NGI A/S, where he works with around 5,000 OEM customers worldwide. Between them, they cover the regulatory, engineering, and commercial sides of a conversation that too rarely happens in the same room.
    The occasion is the third major iteration of the 3-A General Standards, recently released. Rather than imposing sweeping new requirements, it clarified language that had been causing genuine disputes in the field, expanded the tables of accepted materials to reflect modern production realities, and updated the framework to accommodate newer manufacturing technologies such as 3D printing and injection-moulded metals. Listen in for an unusually candid look at what the standards actually demand, where the industry keeps getting it wrong, and why the biggest risk in food safety today may not be what you think it is.

    Episode Contents00:00 – Opening: The contamination mystery that took a year to solve
    01:11 – Introduction: Why the 3A standards update matters now
    03:35 – The 3A standards: a century of food safety, and how they are made
    09:35 – Is hygienic design more expensive? Breaking the myth
    11:06 – What the latest update actually changed
    16:43 – New manufacturing technologies and what the standards now allow
    17:58 – Defining product contact surfaces: where most people get it wrong
    21:49 – Edge cases: conveyor belts, bearings, and the one-inch rule
    25:51 – Non-product contact surfaces and the door frame listeria case
    30:58 – Cleanability as commercial advantage: downtime, cost, and the 30-year argument
    33:43 – 3A and EHEDG: convergence, differences, and cross-border certification
    37:54 – Wishlist: knowledge first, not stricter standards

    In This Episode
    • What the latest update to the 3-A General Standards actually changed, and what was deliberately left the same
    • Why the definition of "product contact surface" reaches well beyond the surfaces your product visibly touches
    • How a year-long listeria problem in a meat processing plant was traced back to the hollow bottom of a door frame
    • Why bearings demand careful hygienic consideration even when they sit outside the product contact zone
    • How the 3-A and EHEDG standards are converging, and where genuine differences in approach remain
    Resources Mentioned
    • 3-A Sanitary Standards (the long-standing framework governing hygienic design of food production equipment in the US)
    • EHEDG, European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group (the European hygienic design framework, with growing harmonisation agreements with 3-A)
    Contact and Follow
    Questions, topic ideas, or guest suggestions: podcast@ngi-global.com
    Find more episodes here.

    This podcast is brought to you by NGI A/S.
    This podcast is produced by Montanus.
    Show More Show Less
    42 mins
  • 20: Food Industry 2026: The Race Between Labor, AI and Automation

    20: Food Industry 2026: The Race Between Labor, AI and Automation
    Feb 18 2026
    Expert Roundtable · 2026 Factory Priorities

    Is your factory ready for the transformation ahead?

    The food industry is shifting fast. Labor gaps, accelerating automation, and the rise of AI are reshaping how factories operate.

    In this special episode of Behind Clean Lines, three industry experts break down the forces redefining food manufacturing in 2026 - and what it will take to stay competitive in a landscape where technology and human expertise must work hand‑in‑hand.

    In this special roundtable episode of Behind Clean Lines, we bring together three industry experts from different corners of the food sector:
    • Richard Smith – Managing Director, NewTech Intelligent Automation (machine builder perspective)
    • Jennifer Crandall – Founder & CEO, Safe Food En Route (food safety consultancy + cross-industry view)
    • Carl Thorson – Food Safety & Sanitation Manager, General Mills (large-scale food producer perspective)
    Together, they explore the converging forces reshaping food manufacturing in 2026 and beyond; from the factory floor challenges of training workers who aren't there, to the promise and reality of AI-powered automation, to the counterintuitive revolution happening in sanitation practices.

    For food manufacturers, the message is clear: the winners in 2026 won't be those with the most technology, but those who strategically navigate the balance between human expertise and technological capability.

    In this episode, you'll learn:
    1. Why labor shortages are the defining challenge, and how micro-learning and wearables are changing training.
    2. Where automation is finally becoming viable in fresh food production (and where it's still years away).
    3. How AI is tackling the "black box" of equipment changeovers and planned downtime.
    4. The counterintuitive "cleaning by exception" philosophy reducing water use while improving safety.
    5. What "food as medicine" means for formulation, equipment, and regulatory compliance.
    6. Why all three experts agree AI is the universal disruptor—and why implementation will be gradual.
    Episode Content
    00:36 Introduction to food industry trends for 2026
    02:49 The labor availability crisis: More than just empty positions
    07:31 YouTube and TikTok-style training: Learning tools for the modern workforce
    13:21 Technology advances opening up fresh food automation
    17:05 Manual activities and the black box of equipment downtime
    20:06 Imagining the food plant of 2030: Lights on or off?
    24:07 The reality: Many companies are still on paper
    30:25 Using visual assessment to reduce human error
    38:06 UK and EU cybersecurity directives for machinery
    44:43 Food as medicine: Consumer trends reshaping production
    53:40 Cleaning by exception: The counterintuitive sanitation philosophy
    58:33 The one disruptor defining 2026: Artificial intelligence

    This podcast is brought to you by NGI A/S.
    This podcast is produced by Montanus.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 3 mins
  • 19: Food Safety on trial - The legal side of contamination

    19: Food Safety on trial - The legal side of contamination
    Oct 15 2025
    Could your food company be tomorrow’s headline for all the wrong reasons?

    Food poisening can be a devastating for the consumer. And for the food company involved, it too comes with high costs: It will damage reputation, shut down lines, trigger recalls, and put entire businesses at risk.

    In this episode of Behind Clean Lines, food safety attorney Bill Marler shares three decades of experience from the front lines of outbreaks.

    He’s seen how E. coli in hamburgers, listeria in ice cream, and unpasteurized juice ended up in courtrooms - and why the warning signs were visible long before disaster struck.

    For food manufacturers, the message is clear: regulators may not catch every risk. That responsibility falls on your processes, your supply chains, and your culture.

    In this episode, you’ll learn:

    1. The weak spots in production where contamination typically begins.
    2. Why supplier practices can make or break your food safety strategy.
    3. How genome sequencing is changing traceability and liability.
    4. Where contracts and documentation protect you (or leave you exposed).

    Episode Content
    00:08 Introduction to foodborne illness lawyer, Bill Marler
    01:10 Process after a food contamination case reported
    04:48 Current statistics on foodborne illnesses in America
    06:43 Tracing pathogens: The outbreak investigation process
    09:20 Role of CDC and genetic fingerprinting in food safety
    12:25 Manufacturer liability in food contamination cases
    15:40 Importance of supplier relationships in food safety
    23:42 Food safety culture: Engaging professionals in prevention
    28:12 The moral vs. PR dilemma in food safety
    30:41 Recommendations for manufacturers to enhance safety
    34:31 Current battles against public health challenges

    This podcast is brought to you by NGI A/S.
    This podcast is produced by Montanus.
    Show More Show Less
    41 mins
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