Environmental Testing in Zone 1

Hello,

I am working in a Frozen Food Processing Plant that makes frozen dough products.  The Plant has environmental testing zones set up for listeria and salmonella, however historically, Zone 1, food contact zones have never been tested.  Is this acceptable or should we be adding food contact testing to our program.  Are there any rules or regulations that require food contact zones be tested?  I am new in the food safety role and new to the Plant.  Any feedback would be appreciated.  Thank you!

Typically you don't want to focus too much on zone 1 because your sanitation practices should already be very robust in that area, so you are unlikely to find pathogens there.

IAFP has an amazing webinar called 

Even if you're not a member you can download the slides for free and they have some great info on the intent of swabbing each zone and developing a meaningful environmental monitoring schedule.

https://www.foodprot...onth=&end_year=

Hello,

I am working in a Frozen Food Processing Plant that makes frozen dough products.  The Plant has environmental testing zones set up for listeria and salmonella, however historically, Zone 1, food contact zones have never been tested.  Is this acceptable or should we be adding food contact testing to our program.  Are there any rules or regulations that require food contact zones be tested?  I am new in the food safety role and new to the Plant.  Any feedback would be appreciated.  Thank you!

Hi Brendar,

A few comments –

Very wide topic.

Some references micro. define Zone1 differently. ie either as  “considered most sensitive” or as  “considered least sensitive”. I assume the latter in yr case.

Choices of micro testing options/frequencies vs Zone Status generally vary with (sometimes overlapping) factors such as (in attempted  prioritised order) –

(1) Specific Industry, eg Seafood, Baking

(2) Legislation, ie Jurisdictional Authority/Regulations

(3) Relevant GMP/FS Standard

(4) Risk Assessment, eg type of Operation, eg wet/dry/RTE,  for example L.monocytogenes may be prioritised in wet operations, Salmonella in dry.

(5) Individual author opinion.

Offhand I don’t recall specific US “Dough” forum threads on this topic but a few expert, mainly US-oriented, general references are collected here –

http://www.ifsqn.com...ls/#entry100060

(the surrounding thread discussion may also be of interest)

I believe FSMA strongly encourages, if not requires zone 1 testing.  We do coliform and APC swabs in zone 1 (along with ATP).