Environmental Testing

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The findings reinforce the importance of current best practice, which recommends same-day delivery on ice.

The European Commission has published a revised guidance document on monitoring and shelf-life studies for Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat (RTE) foods in compliance with recent amendments to Regulation (EU) 2073/2005 on the microbiological criteria for foods.

The new XP-Design Assay Salmonella Serotyping Solution from Bio-Rad enables rapid detection and precise characterization of Salmonella in food and environmental samples.

Honeywell’s new Digital Holographic Microscopy technology leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and light-based holograms to quantify and classify microscopic particles and cells at the point-of-use. It can be used for liquid food safety and quality testing, as well as air and water environmental monitoring.

Classical approaches to environmental monitoring through "seek-and-destroy," while useful, can be enhanced with source tracking approaches applied in food production facilities. Such approaches have great potential to enhance food safety. However, these methods will look different when applied by academia and government, in contrast to the approaches recommended for industry. 

Resulting from dialogues held by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy's Food Safety Committee, this article shares some of the learnings industry has assimilated for Cronobacter control by following the journey of a theoretical ready-to-eat (RTE) dry powder plant striving to eliminate Cronobacter in its environment.

A Biosurveillance Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (BISR) system would address two mission-critical requirements for biosurveillance to detect and prevent outbreaks: rapid detection and predictive analysis.

A recent study has analyzed methods of environmental monitoring for Listeria monocytogenes in food production facilities, comparing two alternative methods against a traditional culture-based method.

A fully automated assay to detect Cyclospora cayetanensis, developed under a Research Collaboration Agreement between the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Rheonix, is now available to food and environmental testing laboratories, and has been proven to achieve consistent detection rates in samples of high-risk fresh produce with low levels of oocysts.

In this Food Safety Insights column, we continue to explore processors' near-term priorities for food safety programs, as well as the regulations and issues they are watching that will have the most impact on their programs in the future. Food safety culture, microbiological control (including environmental monitoring), and sanitation and hygiene are three of processors' indicated top priorities for the near term.