Environmental Monitoring Programs Are Essential for Ensuring Food Safety

Every year, unsafe food causes millions of cases of foodborne diseases and hundreds of thousands of deaths worldwide. Additionally, food contaminated by pathogenic and spoilage bacteria is a source of major economic loss for companies due to recall, loss of product, investigation to identify the source of contamination, costs of increased insurance, and loss of consumer confidence in a product or brand. The microbial contamination of food products can occur at any point in the food production process. Testing only the finished products is not enough to guarantee consumer safety. A negative result of a microorganism’s presence does not mean its absence from the entire production line, making it insufficient for detecting environmental contaminations. Therefore, food production environments must be considered as a potential source of contamination due to ineffective cleaning or sanitation practices.

An environmental monitoring program (EMP) should be used as an early warning indicator in combination with end-product controls to prevent food contamination. To establish an effective EMP program within your facility, there needs to be a cross-functional team trained in food safety. This team must be familiar with the operational procedures of the facility and be able to identify the relevant microorganisms likely to be present within the facility and locations most at risk for contamination. The food safety team must be able to estimate risk levels according to the area in the facility, the potential microbiological hazards, where to sample, how to sample, frequency, the sample analysis, and how to manage the results.

Deibel GuardianEMP^SM’s intelligent design builds guidance and simplification into the environmental monitoring process.

Deibel GuardianEMP^SM is a secure, cloud-based solution that simplifies the implementation, management, and decision-making of your environmental monitoring program for your quality control team by utilizing your customized facility maps and sample site images to verify your preventive control programs. Deibel GuardianEMP^SM builds guidance and simplification into the environmental monitoring process through real-time monitoring of your production facility, making out-of-specification results easier to identify for your quality control team.

With Deibel GuardianEMP, out-of-specification results can be tracked in real-time.

Our sampling program is the core of GuardianEMP. This includes the identification of the surfaces that must be sampled, the sampling method (e.g., material, procedure), when to sample, the number of samples, and the frequency of samples. Results are tracked and trended according to date, sample site, and assay are displayed on a site map, making it easier to identify patterns and hotspots. Our consultants are available to support your EMP development as well as the implementation of GuardianEMP.

Environmental Monitoring Programs are essential for food safety.

To learn more about how Deibel GuardianEMP^SM can be a part of your preventive control program, contact us at Sales@DeibelLabs.com.