Plastic film manufacturer environmental and microbial swab?

We are a plastic film manufacturer that makes the bags that bulk raw meat will get put into. To satisfy the standard do we have to do atp swabs on the rollers on our machine or do we have to do any testing at all? We use no water, the plastic is heated up to 350+ degrees. Not sure what we actually have to do to pass this audit.

What kind of audit would that be? You did not mention

Hi Callmecern,

 

:welcome:

 

Welcome to the IFSQN forums.

 

ATP swabs are good for food contact surfaces but I’m not sure how much benefit you will get from using them on the packaging contact surfaces of your machines.

 

An inspection and period micro swabbing should be sufficient given the intended use is bags for raw meat. Basic Micro swabs would be TVC, Y&M & Enteros.

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony

 

 

This will be for an AIB audit and then in the next year we hope to also get our SQF 

I assume this is (a) high speed processing line(s)? Food contact surface is protected during the whole process, right? Risk assessment would reveal any potential introduction of contaminants. If there are none you can swab surfaces all you want and never find anything. That would allow you to either spread out the swabs (every month, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, etc.) or give you reason to request an exemption from the element (not a mandatory element for packaging). Just make sure you have a strong RA

When I worked in plastic (bottles for hotfill), we did annual environmental monitoring testing and quarterly product testing. The important parts for the EMP were air testing, since the bottles were blow-molded, and water potability, to ensure handwash stations weren't a contamination threat. Product testing was the standard TPC/APC, Yeast, and Mold; we swabbed the inside of a bottle from each line. We felt that was necessary because our customers were mostly juice manufacturers and pretty strict, so we wanted to ensure our product wasn't a hazard to their process. 

 

You'll want to think about your customers and their processes as well when considering your EMP. Ex: if there's compressed air that touches the inside of your bags, how do you ensure the air compressor isn't blowing contaminated air into the bag that could then contaminate your customer's raw meat product?

 

If you're feeling totally lost, I suggest contacting a third-party lab and asking if they offer consultation services. Having a microbiologist take a look at your processes, environment, and product scope could be really helpful.