Best practices in environmental monitoring and food safety.
Implementing an effective environmental monitoring program can help avert foodborne illnesses. Preventing cross-contamination can help decrease foodborne illnesses and prevent costly recalls.
In this series, we will explore our Environmental Monitoring Handbook. This comprehensive resource has been developed with Cornell University and other industry experts. It provides guidance on how those in the food and beverage industry can build and implement a holistic program based on industry best practices and experts’ advice.
This article will explore the Introduction and Chapter 1: The Importance of Environmental Sampling in Food Safety and Quality Programs.
Environmental monitoring overview: helping to keep food safe.
While there are regulations in place to help protect consumers from foodborne illnesses, evolving technology and science are also tracking, fighting, and preventing outbreaks. The food industry is shifting from the traditional food safety testing, to detecting the possible source of contamination before it gets into the product.
In the United States, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and other regulations around the world are emphasizing the importance of environmental monitoring. In Canada, the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) also includes requirements of verification of preventative controls and it leads way for environmental monitoring best practices in Canada.
A clear and comprehensive framework for environmental monitoring.
3M’s Environmental Monitoring Handbook for the Food and Beverage Industries provides a unified framework to set up a comprehensive plan for environmental monitoring.
The process should start with a hazard analysis to identify both safety and quality issues during the processing and handling stages in the facility. It should also determine critical limits and strategies for correction. The frequency of monitoring and record keeping should equally be established.
Food recalls can be extremely costly – not only impacting human health, but also a company’s brand reputation and profitability. Environmental monitoring is a critical strategy to help prevent recalls and can also enable improvements in overall efficiency by streamlining production processes and facilitating longer run-times for equipment.
Learn more about environmental monitoring.
To learn more about the importance of environmental monitoring, download our Environmental Monitoring Handbook by visiting this page. For more information on 3M Food Safety testing solutions, fill out the form below.
Stay tuned for the next three parts of this series to learn about the steps you can take to be more proactive about food safety testing solutions in your facility.