Hi Everybody,
This is my first contact with the group. My company manufactures acid and low acid foods in cans and glass bottles. We bring in the fresh vegetable, sort, wash and preserve in brine before converting to a final product. My concern is that we do not maintain a dry floor policy and there is traffic between the vegetable sorting area and the rest of the plant. Would environmental Listeria be a concern for the product?
Thanks for your response.
Chaconia
Dear Chaconia,
it depends what you mean by a "concern"
if you are asking whether L.mono / Listeria is present on the product before canning, quite possibly due to the raw material since l.mono is externally, environmentally ubiquitous (have you checked for it?).
But unless present in abnormal amounts, I imagine it will be "eliminated" in the canning process since it is non-sporulating.
I also assume you have some hygienic controls to prevent cross-contamination via boots etc ?
Some operations segregate the first stage of processes due to its frequent "messiness"
Rgds / Charles.C