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Fluid Power and Process Equipment for the Food and Beverage Industry
Every food and drink factory runs on plant the customer never sees: the compressed air that blows bottles, the nitrogen in a sealed pack, the cylinders on a filler hosed down every shift. When you choose food industry equipment suppliers for that plant, you’re choosing who keeps it clean, running and ready for the auditor.
Control Gear Group, specialists in compressed air and industrial equipment, was founded in 1973 and is an Atlas Copco Premier Distributor. From Treforest we service sites across South Wales and the South West and supply UK-wide.
What Do Food and Drink Sites Need From an Equipment Supplier?
Three things: equipment that won’t contaminate product, records that satisfy an audit, and a line that keeps running between cleans.
Contamination control comes first. Under Article 5 of Regulation (EC) No 852/2004, food business operators must run permanent procedures based on HACCP principles, and your hazard analysis decides how compressed air, gases and anything else touching product are controlled.
Audits come next. Whether you work to BRCGS or a retailer code, the auditor will ask what your air specification is, when it was last tested and who maintains the kit that produces it.
Uptime depends on how the systems connect. One compressor house can feed the packing line’s pneumatics, the nitrogen generator and the air knives, so a dryer fault upstream becomes a microbial risk downstream.
50+
years of industrial equipment experience
Food-Grade Compressed Air and Air Treatment
On a food site, compressed air does two jobs. Direct-contact air touches the product or its packaging: nozzles, air knives, bottle blowing and drying, mixing and conveying flour or sugar. Indirect-contact air drives cylinders and valves near open product, where an exhaust or a leaking drain can reach it.
BCAS 102 Purity Classes
The British Compressed Air Society, the UK trade body for the industry, sets out purity classes for food and drink production in its Food and Beverage Grade Compressed Air Best Practice Guideline 102, prepared with advice from BRC Trading Ltd. Using the ISO 8573-1:2010 classes for particles, water and oil:
Direct contact air: class [2:2:1], a pressure dew point of -40°C or lower and total oil of 0.01 mg/m³ or less.
Indirect contact air: class [2:4:2], a pressure dew point of +3°C or lower and total oil of 0.1 mg/m³ or less.
Oil-Free Compressors and Air Treatment
We supply Atlas Copco oil-free Z-series compressors, certified ISO 8573-1 Class 0, for sites that want no oil added at the compressor. Atlas Copco is one of the world’s largest compressor manufacturers. Where an oil-lubricated compressor is the better fit, the guideline expects a food-grade H1 lubricant and treatment that meets the class at the point of use.
We supply and fit the desiccant dryers that reach a -40°C dew point, multi-stage filtration at source and at the machine, and zero-loss drains. Our page on compressed air for the food and beverage industry covers the compressor options in more detail.
Testing, Monitoring and Audit Evidence
BCAS 102 recommends testing at least twice a year unless your HACCP study sets a different frequency, with microbiological testing to ISO 8573-7 where your hazard analysis calls for it. Control Gear partners with accredited laboratories for air purity testing, including microbiological sampling for food areas. Without a fixed sampling point there’s nothing to test, so our pipework team can fit one where the line needs it.
Between tests, Atlas Copco SMARTLINK monitoring keeps a record of the compressor’s running data. Our engineers also carry out leak detection surveys and fit heat recovery on ZR and ZT oil-free compressors, which can supply hot water up to 90°C for washing and rinsing. Service plans, repairs and hire across the range are on our compressed air division page.
On-Site Nitrogen for MAP, Sparging and Blanketing
Modified atmosphere packaging uses nitrogen to flush oxygen out of bakery and snack packs. Breweries use it for sparging, and storage tanks are blanketed with it to keep oxygen away from product.
We supply Atlas Copco PSA and membrane generators that produce nitrogen on site at purities up to 99.999%, ending cylinder deliveries, rental charges and bottle handling. The generator runs on compressed air, so we specify its air treatment in the same package. See our industrial gases range for generator sizes and service plans.
One point is often left open. BCAS 102 covers compressed air only and says nitrogen and carbon dioxide need separate control, so your hazard analysis has to set the nitrogen purity and its checks before the generator is sized.
Hygienic and Washdown Pneumatics
Washdown is where standard pneumatics struggle. Hot caustic cleaning attacks aluminium bodies, painted finishes and seals, and water sits in mountings that weren’t designed to drain.
Festo is the German automation manufacturer, and as an official Festo partner we supply its hygienic design and washdown-resistant components for packaging and processing lines. The range also covers high-speed valve terminals, vacuum generators and grippers for packing, listed on our Festo pneumatics and automation page. We’re also an authorised distributor for IMI Norgren, whose range includes stainless push-in fittings, and we supply Parker Hannifin pneumatics.
Our engineers repair Festo cylinders, valve terminals and air preparation units, and our workshop handles planned maintenance and custom pneumatic panels.
Dust Extraction and LEV Testing for Flour and Sugar
The HSE’s page on occupational health risks in food and drink manufacturing names flour and bakery dust as respiratory sensitisers and says bakers have one of the highest incidence rates of occupational asthma. The same dusts can explode. In its guidance on preventing dust explosions in the food industry, HSE lists these among the explosible food dusts:
- Flour
- Sugar
- Custard powder
- Dried milk
- Instant coffee
The HSE has been inspecting large bakeries across Great Britain since January 2026, and in a July 2026 prosecution staff had used compressed air lines to blow dust down. That’s a compressed air question as much as an extraction one.
As an authorised Nederman distributor and Gold Channel Partner, we supply dust collection, including ATEX-rated filters for combustible dust, extraction arms and fans. Nederman is the Swedish extraction manufacturer, and the full range is on our dust and fume extraction page.
The COSHH Regulations 2002, regulation 9, require local exhaust ventilation to be thoroughly examined and tested at least once every 14 months. Our certified engineers carry out that LEV testing. We supply collectors rated for the zone you give us, but the zone classification itself belongs to your site’s DSEAR assessment.
Process Filtration, Cooling and Vacuum
Liquids need the same control as air. We supply food and beverage filtration from pre-filtration to final sterile filtration, plus process water filtration, baskets and strainers, through our industrial and process filtration division.
We’ve been an authorised distributor for Pall, the filtration manufacturer, for well over 20 years and are official distributors for 3M Cuno, 3M’s process filtration range. The team also designs and installs systems and offers condition monitoring, sampling and analysis.
A chiller breakdown can stop a fermentation or a product cooling stage mid-batch, so we supply Atlas Copco TCX chillers for food and beverage duties, including brewery fermentation control. Our F-Gas certified engineers service chillers from all manufacturers and carry out the refrigerant leak checks F-Gas rules require. The Atlas Copco chillers and coolers page shows the range.
For vacuum packaging and handling we supply:
- Atlas Copco GHS VSD+ oil-sealed screw pumps
- DZS dry claw pumps where the vacuum must stay oil-free
Where Each Division Fits on a Food or Drink Site
Control Gear supplies, installs, services and tests compressed air, nitrogen, pneumatics, filtration, cooling, vacuum, extraction and hose for food and drink production.
Product-Contact Air and Packing
Product-Contact Air and Packing
Product-contact air: Atlas Copco oil-free compressors, desiccant dryers, point-of-use filtration and air purity testing. Packing and MAP: on-site nitrogen generation, Festo valve terminals and vacuum generators, and Atlas Copco vacuum pumps.
Washdown, Liquids and Ingredients
Washdown, Liquids and Ingredients
Washdown areas: Festo hygienic pneumatics and IMI Norgren stainless fittings. Liquids and utilities: Pall and 3M Cuno process filtration and Atlas Copco chillers. Ingredient handling: Nederman dust collection and LEV testing.
Hose and Valves for Transfer and Steam
Hose and Valves for Transfer and Steam
Our BFPA certified hose team supplies food and pharmaceutical grade hose, and stainless metallic hose for steam, made up to order with pressure testing and certification. Our process valve range includes lined butterfly valves for corrosive and hygienic duties, and globe valves for steam and condensate.
Hydraulics on Presses and Palletisers
Hydraulics on Presses and Palletisers
As a partner of HYDAC, the German hydraulics and filtration manufacturer, we supply HYDAC filtration, accumulators and fluid care for the hydraulic presses, balers and palletisers on food sites. We also repair hydraulic pumps, valves and cylinders.
Inspection and Compliance Support
Inspection and Compliance Support
Under the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000, a pressure system must not be operated until a written scheme of examination, drawn up or certified by a competent person, is in place. We prepare Written Schemes of Examination for compressed air systems.
Where operators wear air-fed respiratory protection, we test breathing air quality against BS EN 12021, the standard for breathing air purity.
These checks exist because receivers fail and contaminated air harms people.
Talk to Control Gear About Your Food or Drink Site
We hold ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 certification.
Before your next audit, send us your air specification, your last purity test results and a list of the compressors, generators and lines that matter most. Our Treforest team will check them against the BCAS classes and propose the testing, treatment or service each one needs. Call us or use the contact form to book a site survey.
Get in touch
Contact Control Gear today
Tell us about your site and we’ll come back with the right service, audit or system recommendation.
- Visit us Heol Groeswen, Treforest Industrial Estate, Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taff, CF37 5YF
- Call us 01443 843126
- Email us enquiries@control-gear.com
Mon–Fri · 09:00–17:00
24/7 emergency call-out available