Overseas pathogen testing - reportable in AU?
Hello IFSQN members,
Hope everyone is doing good. I am currently working in AU for a global company, making fresh yeasts (HQ in France) and they require us to test for pathogens in all our products - L.mono; Salmonella; S.auerus, E. coli etc. We are currently testing for indicator organisms - Listeria spp, coliforms and Enterobacteriaceae as any pathogen detection is reportable to food safety authorities and the AU site traditionally has stopped one step short to avoid this and has focused more on environmental monitoring for pathogens, which I agree with, as the product is not RTE and will undergo a kill step in baking. We haven't had any detections so far, and the HQ wants us to start testing for pathogens moving forward. Logistically, the confirmation tests have a TAT of 7 days which makes logistics a nightmare as our products have a shelf life of a month, and also the reportability aspects. So, we were directed to send a sample to France / China, and they will test for all pathogens. I am trying to find AU / FSANZ guidelines on pathogen testing overseas - do the same standards apply if the pathogen is detected and should we follow the same protocol?
any help will be greatly appreciated.
regards
Abradolf
Greetings Abradolf,
I don't think that there is a scenario were environmental monitoring excludes testing the end product. There could be other sources for cross-contamination and according to how high or low the risk you just adjust the frequency of your sampling plan. To my knowledge no legislation (EU, US, AU, CN, KR, JP, TW) or a GFSI standard mentions that if there are no findings in environmental monitoring then all is good with the end product. What if, let's say Listeria, has formed a biofilm in some place down the line you haven't thought of testing or you just came too close but not close enough!!!
Also, as I work in an accredited lab, the Listeria detection testing needs 3 days of incubation and Salmonella 4 days. If you have a positive hit then you need the extra days for the confirmation testing (checking if it is indeed positive or false positive). But if you do have a hit in the detection either if it is environmental or end product wouldn't you stop all operations and withhold products for further investigation no matter what ???
There is no difference sending samples overseas, the practice is the same. You report it and take all required actions! and isn't it going to take much more time sending a sample abroad ?
Regards!
Use a lab in Australia, plenty of good labs there, find one with a fast run-around.
I doubt you will ever have a detection, so it shouldn't affect your logistics