Hi Lameez Toffa,
Welcome to the IFSQN forums.
The risk or packaging is less than food generally, are these trays/crates food contact? Or secondary/tertiary packaging?
The requirements for Environmental Monitoring are documented in FSSC 22000 Certification Scheme Version 6 Part 2 | Requirements for Organization to be Audited: Section 2.5.7 Environmental Monitoring (Food Chain Categories BIII, C, I & K):
‘The organization shall have in place:
a) A risk-based environmental monitoring program for the relevant pathogens, spoilage, and indicator organisms;
b) A documented procedure for the evaluation of the effectiveness of all controls on preventing contamination from the manufacturing environment and this shall include, at a minimum, the evaluation of microbiological controls present; and shall comply with legal and customer requirements.
c) Data of the environmental monitoring activities, including regular trend analysis; and
d) The environmental monitoring program shall be reviewed for continued effectiveness and suitability, at least annually, and more often if required, including when the following
triggers occur:
i. Significant changes related to products, processes, or legislation;
ii. When no positive testing results have been obtained over an extended period of
time;
iii. Trend in out of specification microbiological results, related to both intermediate
and finished products, linked to environmental monitoring;
iv. A repeat detection of pathogens during routine environmental monitoring; and
v. When there are alerts, recalls or withdrawals relating to product/s produced by the organization.’
Your priority will be checking areas in contact and in proximity to your open finished packaging.
As FSSC requirements are for the program to include pathogens, spoilage, and indicator organisms for example:
Sampling point = finished packaging conveyor, microbiological hazard = pathogen : Salmonella ; spoilage : YM; Indicator Organism : E.coli
Most sites sample indicator and spoilage organisms more frequently and back this up with some pathogen testing, so your sampling could be:
Sampling point = finished packaging conveyor, microbiological hazard = pathogen: salmonella (quarterly swab); spoilage : YM (monthly swab); Indicator Organism : E.coli (monthly swab)
Normally there would be a sampling plan covering multiple points identified as priority areas for monitoring/sampling.
As well as ensuring your meet FSSC 22000 requirements, these swabs are also an indication of how effective your cleaning programmes are and high Y&M counts may indicate issues with air quality.
As above the program and frequency of swabbing should be based on risk.
Kind regards,
Tony
