How to Carry Out an Effective Environmental Monitoring Program

Food safety for food manufacturers needs an effective environmental monitoring. The USFDA Food Safety Modernization Act transforms food safety programs by shifting the focus to prevention rather than rigorous quality control of food imports.

Choose your monitoring organism

  • Microbial populations
    • Aerobic plate counts
    • Microscopic counts
    • Pathogens Vs indicator organism
  • Species of microbial populations
    • Total coliforms
    • Total enterobactericeae
    • Generic e coli
    • Listeria species
  • Other metabolites
    • Staph toxins; enterotoxins
    • Mycotoxins
  • Make a sampling plan based on risk assessment.
  • The frequency will depend on a number of factors.
  • Type of product or process.
  • Frequency of cleaning and sanitation.
  • Weekly environmental sampling is the minimum.
  • Increase to daily or multiple times during day depending on situations like outbreaks.
  • Each line should establish its own baseline environmental data.

Choose your sampling tool

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Colilert® for water sampling

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Swab

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Sponge

stamping

Direct stamping on surfaces

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MAS-100 NT

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Or directly on product

Choose your analytical method

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MC media pads

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VIP Gold Lateral Flow Sheets

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Simplate

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RIDASTAMP Surface Monitoring Made Easier

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Conventional media

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Compact Dry

Interpret – Suggested performance targets

Indicator Action Levels Before Sanitation After Sanitation
Aerobic Plate Count Target < 100 < 10
Acceptable < 500 < 100
Unacceptable > 500 > 100
Coliforms Target < 10 < 10
Acceptable < 100 < 50
Unacceptable > 100 > 50
Enterobacteriaceae Target < 10 < 10
Acceptable < 100 < 50
Unacceptable > 100 > 50

**Disclaimer: The performance target varies depending on the industry background.

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Why is environmental monitoring more effective than product testing?

  • Environmental monitoring of the entire manufacturing and its adjacent areas is the best possible mechanism to keep the level of risk of pathogen contamination to as low as possible.
  • Only environmental testing allows for systematic targeted and actionable information to reduce the risk of cross contamination.
  • Essential to this program is a root cause analysis and preventive / corrective actions.

For more details please contact Bioscience Diagnostics sales.

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