Food Protection Trends - June 2009 - 342

GENERAL INTEREST PAPER Control of Salmonella in Low-Moisture Foods I: Minimizing Entry of Salmonella into a Processing Facility part one of a three-part series Virginia n. Scott,1 Yuhuan chen,1 timothY a. Freier,2 JeFF Kuehm,3 marK moorman,4 JoSeph meYer,4 theodora morille-hindS,5 laurie poSt,6 leS Smoot,7 Scott hood,8 JoSeph ShebuSKi2 and JeFF banKS9 grocery manufacturers assn., 1350 i St. nW, Suite 300; Washington, d.c. 20005, uSa;2 cargill, p.o. box 5665, mS 65, minneapolis, mn 55440, uSa; 3Frito-lay, 7701 legacy drive, plano, tX 75024, uSa; 4 the Kellogg company, 235 porter St., battle creek, mi 49014, uSa;5Kraft Foods, inc., 555 South broadway, tarrytown, nY 10591, uSa; 6mars Snackfood uS, 800 high St., hackettstown, nJ 07840, uSa; 7nestlé uSa, 6625 eiterman road, dublin, oh 43017, uSa; 8 general mills, inc., 9000 plymouth ave. north, mS 18d1, minneapolis, mn 55427, uSa; 9cadbury, bournville place, birmingham, b30 2lu, uK 1 ABSTRACT there is a common misconception that low numbers of Salmonella are not a problem in low-moisture foods because these products do not support Salmonella growth. however, low numbers of Salmonella in foods can cause illness, and the presence of the organism in low-moisture ready-to-eat foods must be prevented. over the past several decades, a number of outbreaks of salmonellosis have been associated with the consumption of ready-to-eat low-moisture products, including chocolate, powdered infant formula, raw almonds, toasted oats breakfast cereal, dry seasonings, paprika-seasoned potato chips, dried coconut, infant cereals and, more recently, peanut butter, products containing peanut-derived ingredients, and children’s snacks made of puffed rice and corn with a vegetable seasoning. these outbreaks underscore the difficulty of eradicating Salmonella from the environment of dry product manufacturing facilities and highlight the need to reinforce industry preventive control measures through guidance based on the best available information. to address the need for industrywide guidance, the grocery manufacturers association formed a Salmonella control task Force to develop, through a review and synthesis of industry programs and information from the literature, this guidance document, which includes seven elements for the control of Salmonella in the manufacture of low-moisture foods. two of the control elements, preventing ingress or spread in a facility and controlling raw materials, are described in this paper, along with background information on outbreaks and an overview of current industry practices. this is the first in a three-part series of articles. InTRoduCTIon low-moisture products such as peanut butter, infant formula, toasted cereals, and dry aniseed are characteristically low water activity (aw) foods that do not support the growth of Salmonella. Yet all of these products have been implicated in outbreaks of salmonellosis. investigations of these outbreaks indicate that Salmonella cross contamination in low-moisture foods occurred because of poor sanitation practices, poor equipment design, improper maintenance or poor ingredient control. as a result of an outbreak of Salmonella enterica serotype tennessee infections associated with the consumption of peanut butter in 2006–2007 (12), intensified efforts have been taken to reassess industry practices for controlling Salmonella in low-moisture products. these products include those exposed to the processing environment following a final lethality step, products that are not subjected to an inactivation step, or products in which Salmonella-sensitive ingredients are added after an inactivation step. to address the need for industry-wide guidance, the grocery manufacturers association (gma) formed a Salmonella control task Force to develop a guidance document through a review and synthesis of industry programs as well as information from the literature. the industry practices in this document have been collated by the task Force to provide guidance on approaches to control Salmonella and help assure the microbial safety of lowmoisture products. the information in the guidance document is being published here in three general interest papers in order to ensure wide dissemination of the information. ouTBREAKS And RECALLS duE To Salmonella In LoW-MoISTuRE PRoduCTS Salmonella outbreaks from lowmoisture products are relatively rare but often impact large numbers of people. in the uS between 1996 and 2006, of 64 outbreaks (with 5,981 cases) of salmonellosis reported for Fda-regulated foods (exclud- 342 FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS | JUNE 2009
Food Protection Trends - June 2009

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