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Factors impacting microbial release from environmental monitoring tools
- Source :
- International journal of food microbiology. 347
- Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- The U.S. FDA Food Safety Modernization Act Preventive Controls for Human Food Rule underlines the importance of an effective environmental monitoring (EM) program. EM is used to determine harborage sites of microorganisms on processing equipment, assess effectiveness of sanitation programs, and prevent transmission of foodborne pathogens. This study characterizes commercially-available polyurethane foam (PUF) and cellulose (CELL) EM tools for their efficacy in the release of foodborne pathogens from their sponge matrices. Specifically, the objectives of this study were to 1) compare the ability of EM tools to release microorganisms into a recovery eluent, 2) characterize EM tool performance at decreasing inoculum concentrations, and 3) assess the impact of various operators during the processing of EM samples. Two bacteria (Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella Typhimurium) and one human norovirus surrogate (Tulane virus [TV]) were compared at decreasing inoculum levels utilizing two elution techniques (mechanical stomacher, manually by operator), and across six operators. Data indicated that EM tool material composition impacted the release of microorganisms (p = 0.0001), where the PUF EM tool released TV more readily than the CELL EM tool. Conversely, the decreasing inoculum levels did not statistically differ in the release of microorganisms from the EM tool matrices. In addition, no significant difference was found between the machine stomacher and manual elution by human operator or between operators. Overall, the study provides a detailed characterization of two commercially-available EM tools, and the differences identified in this study can be used to improve the effectiveness of EM programs.
- Subjects :
- Salmonella typhimurium
Food Safety
Microorganism
Polyurethanes
Colony Count, Microbial
medicine.disease_cause
Microbiology
03 medical and health sciences
Listeria monocytogenes
Environmental monitoring
medicine
Humans
Human operator
Food science
Cellulose
030304 developmental biology
Tool material
Human food
0303 health sciences
030306 microbiology
business.industry
Significant difference
Norovirus
General Medicine
Viral Load
Food safety
Bacterial Load
Food Microbiology
Environmental science
business
Food Science
Environmental Monitoring
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 18793460
- Volume :
- 347
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- International journal of food microbiology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....b0492a83be8dea01f9063e02955bd61e