Food Protection Trends - July 2009 - 435

GENERAL INTEREST PAPER Control of Salmonella in Low-moisture Foods II: Hygiene Practices to Minimize Salmonella Contamination and Growth part two of a three-part series Yuhuan Chen,1 Virginia n. SCott,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 although low-moisture food products do not support Salmonella growth, the presence of low numbers of Salmonella can still cause illness. therefore, the presence of the organism in low-moisture ready-to-eat foods must be prevented. to address the need for industrywide guidance, the grocery manufacturers association formed a Salmonella Control task Force to develop guidance on the control of Salmonella when manufacturing lowmoisture foods. two of the control elements, preventing ingress or spread in a facility and controlling raw materials and incoming ingredients, were described in a previous paper. here we focus on stringent hygiene practices in the primary Salmonella Control area, including control of movement of personnel and material; hygienic design principles, with particular attention given to ensuring that moisture can be excluded from the processing environment; and preventing growth in the facility by control of moisture, which is critically important in preventing Salmonella contamination of low-moisture products. InTRoduCTIon over the past several decades, a number of outbreaks of salmonellosis have been associated with the consumption of low-moisture products such as chocolate, powdered infant formula, raw almonds, breakfast cereals, dry seasonings, paprika-seasoned potato chips, dried coconut, infant cereals and peanut butter. 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 industry-wide guidance, the grocery manufacturers association (gma) formed a Salmonella Control task Force to develop guidance on the control of Salmonella when manufacturing lowmoisture foods. two of the control elements, preventing ingress or spread in a facility and controlling raw materials, were described in a previous paper (12). here we focus on stringent hygiene practices, hygienic design principles and preventing growth in the facility. SALMONELLA ConTRoL ELEMEnT 2: EnHAnCE THE STRInGEnCY oF HYGIEnE PRACTICES And ConTRoLS In THE PRIMARY SALMONELLA ConTRoL AREA the primary Salmonella Control area (pSCa) in a low-moisture product facility is the area where handling of ingredients and product requires the highest level of hygiene control. in a facility where products receive a pathogen inactivation treatment, the pSCa is the area subsequent to the terminal lethality step. in a facility where no inactivation step is employed, e.g., a facility that produces a dry-blend mix, the entire process area may become the pSCa. although there is a clear need to establish stringent hygiene control in the pSCa, practices in other areas of the facility should not be neglected, as they impact the hygiene conditions in the pSCa. in fact, maintaining stringent hygiene control in the pSCa depends on effective hygiene control in the rest of the processing area of the facility, which for comparison are designated the basic gmp area and, if one is established, the transitional area. the pSCa is sometimes referred to as the high hygiene zone or the high risk area (e.g., in europe). the pSCa is also referred to as the ready-to-eat area, the critical side, or the dry side of the operation. the basic gmp area is also referred to as the basic hygiene area, the non-critical side or the wet side of the facility. the separation of one manufacturing area in a facility from another is generally done to minimize contaminant transfer from one area to another, e.g., wet to dry areas, “dirty” (relatively speaking) to clean areas, raw material areas to finished product areas, or a basic hygiene area to a high hygiene area. Compartmentalization or segregation of the facility into specific areas is a common practice in food processing (7, 9). the separation of the low-moisture product manufacturing plant into areas of different hygiene levels JULY 2009 | FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS 435

Food Protection Trends - July 2009

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