Module 7 (LE 3, pt. 2)

• Sanitation Program for Food Processing and Food Handling

  1. Food Sanitation - protection from contamination

  —> All functions and operations must be included in a sanitation program

  1. Sanitation - dynamic and ongoing function, not sporadic

  —> Sanitation is a “way of life”

  —> According to Schimdt, sanitation is “protection from contamination” 
• Basic Elements of a Sanitation Program

  1. Temperature control
  2. Hygiene and personnel practices
  3. Premises and surroundings
  4. Raw material receiving
  5. Storage
  6. General cleanliness and housekeeping
  7. Equipment construction and maintenance
  8. Equipment installation
  9. Pest control
  10. Recall program
• Temperature Control

  • Avoid prolonged holding in the TDZ (40F to 140F)
  • Functional thermometers
  • Regular, frequent monitoring of temperature on serving lines
  • Proper thawing of foods (under refrigerated conditions or cold water)
• Hygiene and Personnel practices

  • Appropriate personnel training which includes sanitation principles and food handling practices, manufacturing controls, and personal hygiene practices
• Hygiene and Personnel practices

  1. Sanitation Practices and Food Handling Practices — Training should instils and nurture an understanding of the processing steps and technologies for each manufactured product where potential problem exists, satisfy and guard the consumers’ interest
• Hygiene and Personnel practices

  1. Manufacturing Controls and Essential Operations — Training in the critical elements of the operations (the importance of the operations, monitoring, action to be taken when these operations are not controlled)

  • Certification programs for operators of essential heat-processing equipment
  • If no program exists, it its important that specific training programs be developed for such personnel
• Hygiene and Personnel practices

  1. Hygienic practices 

  • Communicable disease/injuries
  • Hand washing
  • Personal cleanliness and conduct
  • Traffic control/controlled access
• Hygienic practices

  • Persons with communicable disease must be restricted from food-handling areas
  • People with wounds or cuts must not handle food or completely cover them with waterproof covering
  • Hand washing facilities with hot water shall be provided and must be convenient to food handling areas
  • Proper hand washing technique
  • Proper protective equipment must be worn
  • Chewing gum, smoking, or eating is not permitted
  • Remove watches and jewellery to avoid contamination
  • Personnel involved in raw product handling must not be allowed in processing or finished product areas
  • Foot baths and hand dips are required
  • Color coding of clothes based on operation department
• Premises and Surroundings

  1. Outside surroundings 

  • Sources of contamination: vermin, bird, harbourage areas, drainage problems, door problems, debris, refuse, pollution-smoke, dust
  • Appropriate measure must be taken to contain and control any potential sources of contamination
• Premises and Surroundings

  1. Buildings and facilities 

  • Every food-processing and handling facility should take in mind two elements of a facility: cleanable ad designed and constructed to prevent entrance or harbourage of pests or other sources of contamination 
  • Walls — light coloured and well-joined 
  • Floors — adequately slopped for drainage to trapped outlets 
  • Openings to outside must be sealed
  • Instrument panels — locked and sealed
  • Windows and doors — tight and close-fitting
  • Doors in food processing areas — self-closing
• Premises and Surroundings

  1. General Protection from Contamination 

  • Facilities and various non-product surfaces and equipment must be evaluated to assess potential for food-product contamination 
  • Shielding from overhead contamination
• Premises and Surroundings

  1. Buildings and facilities 

  Overhead structures and lighting 

  • Lighting — adequate with properly sealed, safety type of overhead fixtures 

  Heating, ventilation, and AC (HVAC) 

  • prevent build-up of heat, steam, condensation, or dust 
  • Remove contaminated air (positive air pressure)

  Drainage and Sewage systems 

  • appropriate traps and vent, and vacuum breaks
  • No potential of cross connections between human hasted effluent and other wastes in the plant

  Waste facilities 

  • Waste containers are to be clearly identified
• Premises and surroundings

  4. Flow-through pattern

  • Minimize traffic
  • Flow-through that physically and operationally separates raw product functions in order to avoid cross-contamination
  • Boiler and engineering rooms must be always separated from food-processing and handling areas
• Premises and Surroundings

  Flow patterns:

  • I-flow = separate receiving and shipping area
  • L-flow = when straight line flow chart is to be accommodated
  • U-flow = very popular as a combination of receiving and dispatch
  • S-flow = when the production line is long and zigzagging on the production floor is required
  • O-flow = when it is desired to terminated the flow near where it is originated
• Premises and Surroundings

  1. Sanitary Facilities 

  • Self-closing doors must be provided for all washroom facilities
  • Washrooms, lunchrooms, and change rooms must be separated from food processing and handling areas
  • Well-ventilated
  • Hand washing facilities should be sufficient (with hot and cold potable water, soap, sanitary hand drying supplies) 
  • Hand washing sinks separated from equipment cleaning and other operations
• 1. Water quality program 

  • Potable water, steam, and ice supply (for sanitary food processing and handling)
  • Water treatments (chlorination, pronation, demineralisation, filtration) 
• Raw Material Receiving

  • Evaluation and monitoring of all operations involved with receiving and storage of ingredients, packaging materials, and other incoming materials
  • Receiving area — separated from processing areas
  • Only approved (21 CFR) food-grade direct and indirect additives and ingredients shall be used
  • Packaging materials must be safe and approved (21 CFR)
  • Note: 21 CFR — Code of Federal Regulations Title 21 (rules of FDA)
• Storage

  1. Temperature and humidity controls

  • The temperature and humidity of storage rooms for raw materials, ingredients, packaging materials and foods should be maintained and monitored
• Storage

  1. Returned foods - foods returned form retail outlets must be clearly identified and stored in a designated area for appropriate disposition — storage conditions need be such that the safety of the returned food id not compromised
• Storage

  1. Non-food chemicals

  • Detergents, sanitisers, or other chemicals must be properly labelled stored and used in a manner to prevent contamination of food, packaging materials, and food contact surfaces — chemicals must be stored in a dry, well-ventilated area which is separate from food handling areas
• General Cleanliness and Housekeeping

  • All food-processing and handling rooms and other rooms must be maintained in a clean, sanitary manner. A major source of plant contamination is from custodial personnel and equipment. All custodial brushes and equipment must be in good repair as well as being clean and sanitary.
• Equipment Construction and Maintenance 

  • Food-contact surface equipment standards of varying thoroughness have been developed for segments of the food industry. Some of these standards are listed here:
  • 3-A Sanitary standards (for milk products)
  • Baking Industry Sanitary Standards Committee (BISSC) (voluntary standards for baking industry)
  • U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) (equipment construction standards for the meat and poultry under FSIS)National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) (seal that indicated equipment meets very general standards)
• Equipment Installation

  • The equipments must be installed in such a manner or location as to not preclude its gleanability
  • Adequate space must be provided within and around equipment, and equipment must be accessible for cleaning, sanitising, maintenance, and inspection
  • Preventive maintenance (servicing intervals, replacement parts)
  • Equipment calibration (thermometers, pH meters, water activity meters, refrigeration controls)
  • All reagents used for monitoring and verification must be documented and stored properly
• Cleaning and Sanitizing Equipment

  • Thoroughly evaluate the effectiveness of cleaning and sanitising programs. Consult a reputable cleaning and sanitising supplier and follow recommended procedures for cleaning and sanitising both food product contact and non-food product contact surfaces in specific operations
• Pest Control

  • An adequate pest control program is necessary for sanitary operation of a food-processing or handling facility. Effectiveness fo the pest-control program should be verified on a regular frequency.
• Recall Program 

  • An important part of food sanitation program is having a working product-recall system in place. The rec all program establishes procedures to be implemented in the vent of a product recall. Written recall procedures should be established and tested for validity. 
• Challenges for Food Technologists and Scientists

  Food Security and Protection

  1. Food Adequacy and Quality

  • The assurances that there will be enough calories for the population’s health and well-being

  1. Food Safety

  • The assurance that consumers are protected from naturally-occuring hazards 

  1. Food Defense

  • The assurance that consumers are protected from intentionally-introduced hazards
• Food Security and Protection: An Evolving Concern

  —> In 1800’s, as the world’s population began to rise, a solution for inevitable hunger crisis was addressed. However, a boom in technology to boost food adequacy and food safety has a negative counterpart: the increasing infectious disease
• —> As time passes, more and more concerns are arising as well. This includes hunger, infectious diseases, and man-made diseases (bioterrorism attacks). Hence, these three concepts play a vital role in maintaining the harmony (Food Security and Protection)
• —> Recently, lifestyle diseases (a disease associated with the way a person or group of people lives) such as atherosclerosis, heart disease, and stroke,; obesity and type 2 diabetes; and diseases associated with smoking and alcohol and drug abuse also became an emerging concern intertwined with the concept of food security and protection
• Why is food safety important?

  1. Food security
  2. Increasing global trade
  3. Unsafe food cause > 200 diseases (diarrhea to long-term health problems)
  4. Socioeconomic impact of FBD - Despite the growing international awareness of food borne diseases as a significant risk to health and socio-economic development, food safety remains marginalised. A major obstacle to adequately addressing food safety concerns is the lack of accurate data on the full extent and cost of foodborne diseases,  which would enable policymakers to set public health priorities and allocate resources
• Key concepts/definition of terms

  • Food quality — physical, chemical, and microbiological aspect (beneficial, spoilage)
  • Food safety — science of protecting our food supply from contamination of food safety hazards
  • Safe food — hazard free but not necessarily free from contamination (contaminants should be at a reduced acceptable level)
• Key concepts/definition of terms

  • Food safety hazards — a biological, chemical, radiological, or physical agent that is:

  1. Naturally occurring in food
  2. Contributed by the environment
  3. Generated by a deviation in manufacturing or handling
  4. Potentially cause illness or injury in the absence of control
• Four Food Safety Hazards

  1. Physical hazards — this include glass, packaging, jewelery, pest droppings, screws
  2. Chemical hazards — include water, food contact materials, cleaning agents, pest control substances, contaminants (environmental, agricultural, and process), pesticides, biocides, and food additives
  3. Biological hazards — include bacteria, yeasts, moulds, viruses
  4. Allergenic hazards — allergenic hazards are foods containing any of the following: milk, eggs, nuts, soy, wheat, fish, and shellfish
• —> Microbiological contamination is a worldwide public health concern. The most reported causes of foodborne illnesses are of microbiological origin (ex: bacteria, fungi, viruses)
• Microbiological hazards

  • --> Foodborne illnesses (food poisoning)
  • A disease carried or transmitted to people through food carrying foodborne pathogens, toxins, or chemicals 
  • --> Foodborne disease outbreak
  • An incident in which two or more people experience the same illness eating the same food 
• Food Safety Issues

  • Complexity of food supply chain, processing and changes in consumption pattern
  • Emergence of AMR
  • Increasing travel and tourism worldwide
  • Public perception challenges (perception of risks, affected by media hype and misinformation, habit/culture)
• Current Foodborne Illness Reality 

  —> Each year worldwide, unsafe food causes 600 million cases of foodborne diseases and 420,000 deaths.

  —> 30% of foodborne deaths occur among children under 5 years of age.

  —> WHO estimated that 33 million years of healthy lives are lost due to eating unsafe food globally each year (underestimation)
• Food Safety Act of 2013

  • “An act two strengthen the Food Safety Regulatory System in the country to protect consumer health and facilitate access of local foods and food products, and for other purposes”
• Food Safety Act of 2013: Main objectives

  • Protect the public from foodborne and waterborne illness and unsanitary, unwholesome, misbranded, or adulterated foods
  • Enhance industry and consumer confidence in the food regulatory system
  • Achieve economic growth and development by promoting fair trade practices and sound regulatory foundation for domestic and international trade