By: Douglas Wright, President
How often do we hear of recalls related to fresh produce, fresh meats and even Ready-to-Eat (RTE) foods. Why are they happening and what can we do to stop them? The most obvious answers are improved sanitation and testing of products before they leave your facility. However, even the best cleaning programs are never going to get facilities to continuous "clean room" status when the raw products themselves are sources of bacteria. As facilities grow larger and production increases, the odds are stacked against us and sooner or later pathogens are going to enter or remain on the finished goods.
How do we test these products in a sufficiently fast enough time period without creating potentially greater issues related to spoilage or growth of marginal pathogens? Even if you do testing in house it takes 48+ hours to get basic results or if you spend money on expensive Elisa testing you can get tests done in just under a day. No matter how you do it test results are simply not available before most fresh products are shipped and thus the potential for recalls increases.
We now have a solution! Our new MICROSNAPS are now AOAC approved (Coliforms and E. coli with other pathogens pending) and you can get ACCURATE QUANTITATIVE results in 6-8 hours. This is not presence /absence but actual enumeration that is more repeatable and accurate than the methods most of you use. The procedures can be adapted easily for any product (solids or liquids) and reduced labour and lab supplies actually reduces costs.
So for fresh produce, meats and RTE foods we can now do testing to end recalls related to microbial pathogens. Ease of use is even better. It utilizes our leading edge Ensure Hygiene meter so that your entire Q.A. sanitation program can all be integrated with one easy to use and cost effective meter. Use of our software allows instant logging of results and its reporting features will make the analysis of this data a snap.
You will then be able to identify problem areas and take immediate corrective actions!
Do you think this will cost too much? Think again before we factor in the cost of recalls we can actually show you using your current costs real savings over current methods in most instances. Book your appointment with one of our specialists to do up a complete cost analysis. Not only will we save you money but we will free up some time so that you can take a proactive approach to Q.A. Recalls can become a distant memory and it can be done easily and very cost effectively.
With all that spare time we can show you other methods to create further improvements in your monitoring programs while at the same time generating further savings in time and money.
