6 replies to this topic

[Seathalos]

Hello all,

 

I am currently working on a rework for our sanitation schedule, verification and SSOPs. I unfortunately came into a horror show for food safety as the last few people in my position did almost no proper testing (ATP testing has been out of date for nearly two years, at least 4-6 months of no verification on our PCs like PAA, pest logs were 4 months out of date are just a few of problems I have identified) and looking for some potential advice on how to move forward. We are a medium sized Apple packing facility and currently only clean once a week for the wet area, and "as needed" (I personally hate this term) for anything post waxing. 

 

We are currently using CH2O sanitation products, such as chlor-cling 937 and wax strip, are there products that you would recommend more? We also use Simple Green Original and D Pro 5, I do think we might want to add in a rotating sanitizer to limit microbial resistance, is there one that you recommend? Also are there any suppliers that you recommend? I am hoping to get us ones that will help train individuals on proper decanting and use of our products. 

 

I also personally feel like ATP testing simply is not enough, being that it test for all organic material and can't verify sanitation. I have looking into Romer Labs' Cytoquant as an alternative since it test for particulates and VBC to replace our current Hygiena EnSURE touch. Though I am not opposed to using it if it is the most viable options. Do any of you have experience with the more novel Cytoquant? 

 

Finally, I personally feel like I need to push us to get a dedicated Sanitation Team. We currently just pull line workers post production to clean and I know that they have not been properly trained for sanitation. And feel that not having dedicated staff for sanitation will lead to both high turnover rate, making training a near impossibility, and lower quality sanitation as the team will have already worked at least 5 hours on the packing line.

 

If you need any resources or examples please feel free to ask, as making sure these issues are resolved is my upmost priority currently

 

Thank you for your time,

 Seathalos

[johnct]

Hello Seathalos, 

 

I would start with CAPA reports for each issue and the lag in testing, were these tasks done but not recorded or not done at all? Either way complete your CAPAs, fix any non-conformities and start documenting as soon as possible.

 

Is there a current Risk Assessment to justify the once a week cleaning? Maybe for a week, test on a daily basis and depending on the results justify the  decrease in frequency that way.

 

For sanitation i can recommend: https://www.caniusa.com/    check out their website, it may help.

 

I use Hygiena Ensure Touch (ATP swabs) plus Environmental testing (sponge) from Eurofins at different intervals, it covers pretty much everything for my facility (dietary supplement mfrc) . ATP swabs are affordable and practical when combined with other tests in my opinion.

 

For sanitation, since there are already people who are familiar with the task, would you consider training a few of them and move them from their current position to create your sanitation team and hire new employees to fill their position?

 

 

Good luck

John CT

[Seathalos]

Hello Seathalos, 

 

I would start with CAPA reports for each issue and the lag in testing, were these tasks done but not recorded or not done at all? Either way complete your CAPAs, fix any non-conformities and start documenting as soon as possible.

 

Is there a current Risk Assessment to justify the once a week cleaning? Maybe for a week, test on a daily basis and depending on the results justify the  decrease in frequency that way.

 

For sanitation i can recommend: https://www.caniusa.com/    check out their website, it may help.

 

I use Hygiena Ensure Touch (ATP swabs) plus Environmental testing (sponge) from Eurofins at different intervals, it covers pretty much everything for my facility (dietary supplement mfrc) . ATP swabs are affordable and practical when combined with other tests in my opinion.

 

For sanitation, since there are already people who are familiar with the task, would you consider training a few of them and move them from their current position to create your sanitation team and hire new employees to fill their position?

 

 

Good luck

John CT

 

Thanks for the response John CT,

 

We already have a working CAPA document going on as we are working on the issues currently. I already have plans on moving certain people over to sanitation, if they are willing to, our biggest issue is that with the original FSO retiring in 2020 nearly everything he built up was thrown out the window because of the cost it had on production. It doesn't help that the FSOs after him and before me have not done really anything to keep up with processes let alone improvements. 

 

Would you recommend doing the risk assessment with ATP or Microbial swabs? I personally don't want to keep the only weekly cleaning as I would rather make sure no biofilms or microbial niches form in areas post kill step especially with how Listeria can interact with Waxing, studies have shown they can survive as VB which can lead to consumers contracting Listeriosis.

 

Thanks,

 

Phoenix 

[johnct]

Hello Phoenix, I wouldn't just rely on ATP swabs alone to do the risk assessment in your case. The environmental monitoring swabbing with the sponges are great for Salmonella, APC, Coliform, E.Coli, Yeast/Mold, Listeria and Enterobacteriaceae. The downside is you need to submit them and wait for the results, not to mention they need to be sent in a cooler with ice packs at certain temperature (overnight shipping). ATP on the other hand is instant results.

 

If you have an in-house lab to conduct these tests that would be ideal, otherwise you're gonna have to wait to see if there is an issue. 

 

Sincerely, 

John CT

[Seathalos]

Hello Phoenix, I wouldn't just rely on ATP swabs alone to do the risk assessment in your case. The environmental monitoring swabbing with the sponges are great for Salmonella, APC, Coliform, E.Coli, Yeast/Mold, Listeria and Enterobacteriaceae. The downside is you need to submit them and wait for the results, not to mention they need to be sent in a cooler with ice packs at certain temperature (overnight shipping). ATP on the other hand is instant results.

 

If you have an in-house lab to conduct these tests that would be ideal, otherwise you're gonna have to wait to see if there is an issue. 

 

Sincerely, 

John CT

 

That makes sense, We are having microbial retesting currently because of presumptive positives. Though there is probably not enough data to make a strong judgement on it.

[johnct]

If interested,  contact AFL or Eurofins for quotes .

 

Don't forget to qualify the lab according to the Quality Standard scheme you have.

[Seathalos]

If interested,  contact AFL or Eurofins for quotes .

 

Don't forget to qualify the lab according to the Quality Standard scheme you have.

We currently are using Alliance Analytical Labs for our microbial swabbing. I will probably reach out to them for suggestions and quotes for the risk assessments. We also more than likely have to revalidate our processes since I believe it has been more than 3 years since they were validated last. I'm unfortunately not studied as a microbiologist yet and we will need one to take care of that.