Voluntary Standards cover incident management and food safety.
Press Release Summary:
To help protect emergency responders, National Fire Protection Association has released NFPA 1561-2008, which defines and describes elements that promote coordination among responding agencies. Standard stresses importance of areas of incident management that improve safety, health, and survival of responders. In effort to improve food safety practices, NSF International has published NSF/ANSI 2-2008, Food Equipment for safe handling, processing, and storage of food products.
Original Press Release:
Voluntary Standards Cover the Spectrum: From Incident Management to Food Equipment
In an effort to communicate the vital role that standards play in daily life, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) will publish, on an ongoing basis, a series of snapshots of the diverse standards initiatives undertaken in the global and national standards arena, many of which are performed by ANSI members and ANSI-accredited standards developers. Two of the latest selections follow:
Incident Management
Each day rescue professionals respond to numerous incidents, some of which may result in an injury or fatality. To help protect emergency responders, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), an ANSI organizational member and accredited standards developer, has released NFPA 1561-2008, Standard on Emergency Services Incident Management System.
Targeting organizations or agencies that provide rescue, fire suppression, emergency medical care, special operations, or law enforcement, NFPA 1561:2008 also defines and describes the elements that promote coordination among responding agencies. Stressing the importance of areas of incident management that improve the safety, health, and survival of responders, the language and terminology have also been changed in the 2008 version to facilitate compliance with the National Incident Management System (NIMS).
NFPA is a membership organization with an international scope that provides and advocates consensus codes and standards, research, training and education to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards.
Food Equipment
With food safety at the forefront of many consumers' minds, food handling and processing organizations worldwide are turning to voluntary consensus standards to help them safely handle, process, and store food products.
In an effort to help improve food safety practices, NSF International has published NSF/ANSI 2-2008, Food equipment, a revised version of NSF/ANSI 2-2007.
The American National Standard covers equipment such as bakery, cafeteria, kitchen, and pantry units, as well as other food handling and processing equipment, such as tables and components, counters, hoods, shelves, and sinks. This document does not restrict new unit design, provided that such design meets the standard's minimum specifications.
Section 7 of the standard addresses food handling and processing equipment that has been designed and manufactured with a security package, to be utilized in environments where both sanitation and security are concerns, such as correctional facilities, mental health facilities, and some schools.
An ANSI organizational member and accredited standards developer, NSF International is an independent, not-for-profit organization and a "third-party" provider of certification services dedicated to public health safety and protection of the environment.
