Post by jeffray on May 20, 2010 16:52:48 GMT -5
Hi Everybody!
I hope there is someone out there that can assist with my request and question.
I searched to see if there was any posts concerning NSF equipment certification but did not see any. Forgive me if this topic has already been discussed.
In the meantime, I hope that there is someone out there that can shed some light on my issue concerning NSF. I recently purchased chocolate tempering machines that perform 3 functions as most of you know. Primarily the machine is a tempering (pre-crystallization) chocolate unit and then filling the molds and on some machines vibrate the air bubbles out that form in the chocolate. I was/am planning on using the machines in my commercial kitchen however they are NOT NSF certified. To the best of my knowledge there is not one company that manufactures NSF tempering machines. I know there is a company which makes small table top NSF units but for the purpose of this discussion I am talking about larger units.
The Environmental Health Department requested that the machines get NSF certified. My question is this. If the tempering machine manufacturers do not produce machines that are NSF certified how can every commercial kitchen in the US be certified by the Health Department? Easy, they make you hire a company for crazy amounts of money to label it "NSF".
Having had a conversation with the folks at NSF their words were that they frown upon "field representatives" of "for profit" companies going out and making a visit to a commercial kitchen and having that piece of equipment labeled NSF (field labeling).
I think that foreign companies (Belgium, England,France, Italy, Spain....and any others I missed) do business in the US they should have to go through some type of scrutiny before they are able to sell their product here. In other words they should have to pay for the certification! I am now forced to come up with between 2 and 4 thousand dollars to have this piece of equipment labeled NSF or yes, the other option is not to open.... you are right I do not think it is fair that the consumer/purchaser of these types of products that are not NSF approved have to bear the costs in order to use them in a commercial setting. It is insane. I used one of these machines about 15 years ago in Canada and it seems to me that we did not have any issues with it.....Brad? what about new winnowers, conches and refiners coming into the US?
OK, I feel a little better that I got this off my chest! Thanks for reading.
I hope there is someone out there that can assist with my request and question.
I searched to see if there was any posts concerning NSF equipment certification but did not see any. Forgive me if this topic has already been discussed.
In the meantime, I hope that there is someone out there that can shed some light on my issue concerning NSF. I recently purchased chocolate tempering machines that perform 3 functions as most of you know. Primarily the machine is a tempering (pre-crystallization) chocolate unit and then filling the molds and on some machines vibrate the air bubbles out that form in the chocolate. I was/am planning on using the machines in my commercial kitchen however they are NOT NSF certified. To the best of my knowledge there is not one company that manufactures NSF tempering machines. I know there is a company which makes small table top NSF units but for the purpose of this discussion I am talking about larger units.
The Environmental Health Department requested that the machines get NSF certified. My question is this. If the tempering machine manufacturers do not produce machines that are NSF certified how can every commercial kitchen in the US be certified by the Health Department? Easy, they make you hire a company for crazy amounts of money to label it "NSF".
Having had a conversation with the folks at NSF their words were that they frown upon "field representatives" of "for profit" companies going out and making a visit to a commercial kitchen and having that piece of equipment labeled NSF (field labeling).
I think that foreign companies (Belgium, England,France, Italy, Spain....and any others I missed) do business in the US they should have to go through some type of scrutiny before they are able to sell their product here. In other words they should have to pay for the certification! I am now forced to come up with between 2 and 4 thousand dollars to have this piece of equipment labeled NSF or yes, the other option is not to open.... you are right I do not think it is fair that the consumer/purchaser of these types of products that are not NSF approved have to bear the costs in order to use them in a commercial setting. It is insane. I used one of these machines about 15 years ago in Canada and it seems to me that we did not have any issues with it.....Brad? what about new winnowers, conches and refiners coming into the US?
OK, I feel a little better that I got this off my chest! Thanks for reading.