Environmental Monitoring in a non RTE food processing environment

Hello,

Please I need assistance in drafting environmental sampling zones and frequency of sampling for an edible oil plant. This is a non RTE food processing environment and we record less than 10 cfu for our quarterly environmental sampling for product contact surfaces, we were doing earlier before deciding to go for FSSC. With the additional requirement of environmental monitoring for FSSC, what considerations do we need to make for zoning, can we maintain our defined frequency of quarterly monitoring for the various zones because of our low risk of microbial cross contamination. Kindly advise.

Thank you

Hello,

Please I need assistance in drafting environmental sampling zones and frequency of sampling for an edible oil plant. This is a non RTE food processing environment and we record less than 10 cfu for our quarterly environmental sampling for product contact surfaces, we were doing earlier before deciding to go for FSSC. With the additional requirement of environmental monitoring for FSSC, what considerations do we need to make for zoning, can we maintain our defined frequency of quarterly monitoring for the various zones because of our low risk of microbial cross contamination. Kindly advise.

Thank you

Hi Augustinesco,

I don't quite understand how "edible" oil is non-RTE ?

Frequency of monitoring is invariably subjective unless there are Regulatory issues.

Some examples of (zoning + frequencies) are given in files env(4 -6) in this link -

https://www.ifsqn.co...ls/#entry100060

Ok thank you I will check it out.

I classified it as non RTE considering that consumers have to heat it before its intended use. Probably my definition may not suffice but that was my baseline for the classification.