Contamination Flow and Preventive Controls

The food industry is in dire need of expanding proven cross-contamination thinking and practices to a more comprehensive and preventive level.

This 1-hour session focuses on potential cross contamination points from farm harvest bins onto pallets and through load and unload operations and into truck trailers and shipping containers.  A comprehensive, risk-reducing preventive approach is presented, along with a basic set of low-cost tools covering temperature monitoring, sanitation, environmental protection, traceability, sampling and testing, training, documentation, transporter certification, and insurance coverage.

Learning Objectives:-

• Understand cross contamination
• Be able to define potential problems in your processes
• Establish preventive cross contamination controls
• Train your staff
• Set up audit programs
• Initiate process changes.

Areas Covered in the Session:-

• Practices for preventing cross contamination in food distribution channels
• Products and services designed to establish a preventive program
• How to upgrade your sanitation, testing, temperature monitoring, and record-keeping procedures
• Points of potential cross contamination in distribution centers, pick and place operations, packing houses, trucks, pallets, bins, trays, and other food carrying containers.
• FDA FSMA proposed rules on the sanitary transportation of human and animal foods
• Sanitation and temperature controls
• Traceability through logistics processes
• Proposed procedures for company use.

Background:-

Most information and training surrounding food cross contamination is focused primarily on bacteria in the kitchen and the need to separate utensils and work areas of one type of food from another.  However, supply chain and food distribution flows provide much greater opportunities and dangers for cross contamination.

Cross-contamination in the kitchen represents the tip of the iceberg and often ignores allergens, pesticides, gluten, yeast, molds, and most other adulterants as food moves through distribution channels in shared loads, on dirty pallets, and in poorly sanitized trucks.  A much more comprehensive approach that protects food from cross contamination and humans from illness and death is required.

The potential for cross-contamination begins at the producer and includes all containers used to move food through the supply chain.  If chicken residue is left in a truck trailer and that trailer is not appropriately sanitized and tested prior to picking up a load of lettuce, the potential for salmonella to impact the health and lives of hundreds of people is high.  Molds or yeast left over from one load can impact the next several loads.

Why Should You Attend?

With the FSMA’s rules on food safety for human and animal foods, risk reduction and preventive planning become key factors.  Requirements for food safety include improved management practices covering all food handling and food processes from the field through delivery to consumers.

Who Will Benefit?

• Food Safety Staff
• Cross contamination trainers and specialists
• Growers
• Shippers
• Food Safety internal and external auditors and audit team members
• Shipper Supervisor and Managers
• Sanitation and temperature specialists
• Food carriers and their drivers
• Food retailers and restaurant chains
• Distribution center operations personnel
• Carrier and food transportation management
• Internal food safety and quality team members
• Food Buyers and Supply Chain Qualifiers.