Foodborne Contamination in the Field and in the Facility: How to Troubleshoot and Respond

Event Description

March 26, Wednesday 10:00 AM PDT | 01:00 PM EDT

This food safety best practices webinar will discuss monitoring and troubleshooting techniques for identifying locations of potential microbial contamination in the field or in the food plant. Attendees will learn how to remove or reduce the threat of contamination in their facility or on their farm.

Why Should you Attend:

Whether it originates on a farm or in a food plant, foodborne microbial contamination of food supply is an unseen threat. Bacteria are extremely small and can only be seen under a microscope. They can, however, be detected through various means like direct testing of product or swabbing of equipment or surfaces. Only through microbial testing and monitoring can this threat be discovered in the field or in the food plant.

This webinar will discuss monitoring techniques for surveying and identifying locations of potential contamination. From the discussion, attendees will learn how to interpret and analyze this information so one can make informed decisions on how to remove or reduce the threat of contamination in their facility or on their farm. The instructor has put together several examples of foodborne contamination that will enhance the troubleshooting skills of the field farm manager or the food processing manager.

Areas Covered in the Webinar:

• Introduction to the major foodborne pathogen
• Background on field contamination
• Background on facility contamination
• Investigation, monitoring and troubleshooting techniques
• Examples of contamination in the field and in the facility
• Summary

Who Will Benefit:

This webinar will provide valuable assistance to all personnel in packinghouses and processors, farm operations and cold storage and distribution centers.

• Farm owners/managers/foremen
• Owners and operators of food companies
• Packinghouse Managers and Supervisors
• QA managers
• Food Safety Managers, Supervisors and Coordinators
• Brokers and salespersons

Instructor Profile:

Richard Anfuso, has 34 years of experience in the food and agricultural industries, especially in the areas of food safety, quality assurance and process development and has spent much of his career chasing microbial contamination both in the facility and in the field. He is also a microbiologist and has run a number of food safety laboratories. He is presently President and owner of Anfuso Food Safety, Inc., specializing in consulting, food safety auditing, contamination troubleshooting, and training. He is ISO 9001:2008 auditor trained and a Primus GFS auditor.

Topic Background:

The CDC estimates that each year in the United States 148,000 people are hospitalized for foodborne illness and that approximately 3,000 will die. Foodborne illness can be particularly lethal to the elderly, immune-compromised and very young children. For a food processor, a packinghouse or a farm, an outbreak of a foodborne bacterial contamination can be the greatest threat to its survival. While resources are limited and margins are low, managers must decide how much resources they will put towards combating and eliminating foodborne contamination with their facility. Because foodborne bacteria are so tiny, microbial contamination is an unseen threat in the field or a food plant. The best tool for minimizing microbial contamination is knowledge.

Understanding how foodborne pathogens originate in the field, enter into a food plant, and move through the facility is vital to the success of the company. Complacency and lack of knowledge should not be an option.