Hi guys I hope I can get some help here,
Im based in UK for starters and have just ben through BRC and gained a B grade within company im working at.
I performed a routine swab plan of various locations like I have done a million times before in many job roles but have never had a out of spec result return back with a positive result for ecoli...
I understand that most variants are harmless but in any case I have asked the lab to identify the strain doing some kind of test (cant recall name ) im no microbiologist so im wondering if this is something I need to report to EHO??? once I got the result I called a food safety meeting which consists of the haccp comitee members and immediately stopped using the steaming booths linked to those drains to perfrom a full deep clean. swabs sent off etc.. but how serious is this? or is it not so serious unless the identify a specific harmful variant of the strain? I would also ask what if it was salmonella?
Usually only thing we have detected is occasionally high coloy counts and sometimes listeria on floors in warehouse which is controlled by cleaning of those areas daily.
For your info:
Its a Dry end product that has very low Aw and low moisture content. and does not come into contact with the said drains they are merely a run off for steam condensate...
We performed a risk analysis and deemed it to be a low risk of contamination to the products at that stage and further cooking processes have to be undertaken by end user to create the end product..