Hello and thank you all for your help so far. Great resource here. Really appreciate the support you have shared so far.
I work in a flour mill. To date the mill has never implemented an Environmental Monitoring Program. I have little training and experience so I am really trying to piece this together as accurately as I can.
Overview:
- Dry clean only facility: Cleaning and sanitation program in place.
- GMP: Employee hygiene program (agreement) in place.
- Allergen Program: Primarily wheat products, segregating allergens/non in storage however all products share facility and equipment. Allergen warning on ALL products (Wheat in name or "Packaged In"...OR..."Processed on shared Equipment").
- Kill Step required when using our product by customer due to (possible?) inherent pathogens.
Piecing a program together: Since we deal with grain in which pathogens are inherent (kill step passed to customer) I am under the belief that I would need to develop a program that would monitor and prevent the introduction of more or new pathogens to our products while stored/processed at our facility. I am not certain how this will look as a document but I think I can piece it together. Just not sure if my approach is accurate.
Testing: I need to zone facility and test for possible areas of pathogen introduction- Receiving, storage, equipment?, and employees? This is where I begin to get lost. I believe I would ant to test for Salmonella and E. Coli are there any other suggestions?
Finally, what type of testing: Is it possible for me to solely use In-House testing (without sending to lab) and if so, are there any recommendations for test kits.
As you can see I am primarily concerned with pathogens although I would like to test our equipment for allergens post cleaning just for our records. Any help is greatly welcome.
Thank you,
KWP