FOOD SAFETY SUPPLEMENT: HYGIENE


processes, the process line surfaces must not be sterile, because putting a too high level in the process hygiene means that there are no food processing – all efforts go to cleaning and disinfection procedures. With this, we do not mean that cleaning and disinfection is not needed, we mean that each process should carefully be evaluated to see what the processed products stand4


. It is also to be noted that the microbial load on surfaces should be remarkable


lower at the beginning of the processing that in the middle of the shift or at the end of the production shift before cleaning takes place5,6


.


Setting of limits for microbial loads allowed is not unambiguous. Different food products can tolerate different microbial loads before food spoilage takes place. Furthermore, the type of contaminants also affects the severity of the spoilage7


prone to microbial contamination, whereas


raw meat products can contain high loads of spoilage microbes before cooking and subsequent consumption and therefore there is a need for various limit levels for various food processes. The efficiency of cleaning procedures can be observed based on microbial culturing results obtained from the surfaces5


. The . Heat treated milk product is very


condition of utensils and tools can also be studied by following the microbial results of these surfaces5


. The hygienic condition of the


environmental surfaces in the food processing area e.g. floors, walls and doors is not so significant in all process phases but movements by workers and through draughts are possible vehicles for transportation of microbes from an environmental surfaces to a food processing contact surfaces. If this happens during cleaning and the surfaces are left in humid conditions at room temperature, one microbial cell can divide into millions in eight to 10 hours and thus the


“ Different food products can tolerate different


microbial loads before food spoilage takes place ”


cleaning efforts carried out are omitted. You can imagine that if the contaminant is a pathogen, then the problem is more severe7


. Frequently


found loads with high microbial counts can also mean that the facilities need mending and thus the places needing corrective actions can be found in broad hygiene surveys, in which the limits are correctly set4


. The company’s risk


management team should adjust the microbial limits according to the product(s) with set shelf- life aspects. Depending on the food product and its quality, the team can preferably start with a normal limit and if needed tighten the limits if the shelf-life set is not acquired with the normal limits set1


. The aim of this study is to show the


FIGURE 1The share of good, adequate and poor hygiene on environmental food processing surfaces in 10 food factories as a total of: a) 16, b) 15 & c) 11 surfaces in three dairies, d) 10, e) 8 & f) 9 surfaces in three bakeries, g) 50 surfaces in a food pilot factory, h) 20 & i) 14 surfaces in two meat factories and j) 14 surfaces in a slaughterhouse. See Table 1 for limits used


newfood Volume 15 | Issue 1 | 2012


effect of various limits on hygiene surveys performed in the real food processing. The hygiene surveys were performed in Finland, Estonia, Turkey and Romania 2008-106


.


Methods Hygiene surveys were carried out in 10 food


10


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