Michael Cramer is currently the senior director of food safety and quality assurance with Ajinomoto Windsor, Inc. The company was formed through various acquisitions (Multifoods, Specialty Brands, and Windsor Foods) and ultimately the purchase of Windsor Foods by Ajinomoto. He will celebrate his 25th year with the company in October 2018.

Mike is an SQF practitioner, ASQ-certified quality auditor, and a preventive controls-qualified individual. CRC Press published Mike's book “Food Plant Sanitation: Design, Maintenance and Good Manufacturing Practices” (2nd Edition, 2013).

Mike is a graduate of West Chester University in West Chester, PA where he earned a B.Sc. Health Science in 1977. He spent 16 years working with Swift & Company (Armour, Swift – Eckrich, ConAgra) in poultry operations, processed meats and poultry, and corporate food safety and quality assurance.

Finally, Mike has been an esteemed member of Food Safety Magazine's Editorial Advisory Board since 2001.

In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Mike Cramer about:

• Why Listeria continues to be a challenge in food plants
• Qualities that a food facility—and its staff—should have in order to tackle Listeria and environmental monitoring issues
• The financial burden of setting up an environmental monitoring program, and why it's necessary
• Implementing a program that is designed to look for Listeria spp., not just Listeria monocytogenes
• What happens when regulatory inspectors come in to conduct swabbing
• The pros and cons of testing in an in-house lab vs. a third-party lab
• Testing methodologies: cultural method, polymerase chain reaction, VIDAS, lateral flow devices, etc.
• What should happen when positive test results are confirmed
• The Ishikawa process and how it relates to getting to the root cause of environmental problems
• The importance of having a cross-functional team in place to attack Listeria harborage from all angles and departments
• Implementing chemical and mechanical actions to rid a plant of biofilm
• How the dirtiest areas of a food facility don't automatically equal Listeria contamination
• Sanitary design and hygienic design
• Quat, peroxyacetic acid, chlorine dioxide, silver dihydrous chloride, and other options for sanitizing
• Taking advantage of industry conferences, events, and new technologies to hone in on what a particular food business needs to know to improve food safety operations

Related Content and Resources:
BOOK: Food Plant Sanitation: Design, Maintenance, and Good Manufacturing Practices, 2nd Edition 
2014 Sanitary Equipment Design Taskforce (checklist and glossary) 
Risks of Oligodynamic Silver Use in Food Preservation and Processing Operations (June/July 2017) 
Does Animal Welfare Affect Food Safety? (February/March 2009)

Mike Cramer's Articles Published in Food Safety Magazine:
Environmental Listeria Monitoring: Seek and Destroy Pathogens (December 2017/January 2018)
Allergen Management: A Personal and Professional Perspective (August/September 2016)
A Look at GMPs: How FSMA Will Change Expectations (February/March 2016)
Supplier Certification: A Matter of Risk Assessment and Resources (October/November 2015)
Upgrade Sanitation Plan to Work Out Bugs (April/May 2014)

For more articles from Mike Cramer, access our compiled search FoodSafetyMagazine.com

Bob Ferguson's Food Safety Insights Articles:
The Uphill Path to FSMA Compliance (October/November 2018)
Lessons Learned: Careers in Food Safety (August/September 2018)
Listeria: An Important Focus of Environmental Monitoring (June/July 2018)
Sanitation Verification for Allergen Control (April/May 2018)
Testing and Sanitation for Allergen Control (February/March 2018) 
Outsourcing: Pathogen Testing under the Microscope (December 2017/January 2018)
The New Face of Sanitation Programs: New Rules, New Challenges (October/November 2017)
A Closer Look at Environmental Monitoring in the Processing Plant (August/September 2017)
What Industry and FDA Are Thinking About FSMA Implementation (June/July 2017)
The Drivers of Differences in Food Safety Testing Practices (April/May 2017)
A Look at the Microbiology Testing Market (February/March 2017)

News Mentioned in This Episode:
Ostroff Retiring from FDA; Walmart's Yiannas Moving to Agency 
Plant at Center of Largest Ever Salmonella Ground Beef Recall Accused of "Inhumane" Animal Treatment in USDA FSIS Records (Notice of Intended Enforcement, Notice of Deferral) 
Nearly 7 Million Pounds of Raw Ground Beef Recalled After Salmonella Outbreak

Presenting Sponsor: Eurofins
Training Courses: Register and browse online for a training course near you
Webinar: Is Your EMP Program Hitting the Mark? Watch our recorded webinar
White Paper: Download Eurofins' Environmental Monitoring Guide

Brittney Miller is President of Manchester Farms, America's first quail farm. What started over 40 years ago as a backyard hobby has grown into a nationally recognized, family-owned business that produces more than 80,000 quail weekly, raising them responsibly, without antibiotics or hormones, and shipping premium products to chefs, retailers, and home cooks across the country. Brittney's story is about more than farming: it is about stewardship, innovation, and family values. She combines her passion for sustainable agriculture with modern food safety standards. Her SQF Level 2 certified, HACCP-compliant farm sets the benchmark for quality in specialty poultry.

Mindy Brashears, Ph.D. is the USDA's Under Secretary for Food Safety. Dr. Brashears previously served as Under Secretary for Food Safety from 2020–2021, and Deputy Under Secretary in 2019. Dr. Brashears returns to USDA from Texas Tech University, where she was a Paul Whitfield Horn Distinguished Professor of Food Safety and Public Health, the Roth and Letch Family Endowed Chair for Food Safety, and the Director of the International Center for Food Industry Excellence.

Justin Ransom, Ph.D. is Administrator of USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), where he oversees FSIS' mission to ensure the safety, wholesomeness, and proper labeling of America's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and processed egg products. He leads the agency's modernization efforts, streamlining inspection systems, strengthening public health protections, and advancing science-based policies. 

Elena Medo, M.B.A. is an entrepreneur, researcher, and inventor who has spent nearly 40 years transforming neonatal care through leadership and innovation. She has secured numerous patents, raised over $40 million across four companies, and built a legacy of firsts, including the first commercially available shelf-stable donor breast milk product; the first milk bank owned exclusively by nursing mothers; and the first medical device designed to analyze human milk. Today, as CEO and co-founder of Leonie Health PBC, established in 2023 with her daughter, Adrianne Weir, Elena is developing a revolutionary product that replicates the immune properties of colostrum to protect preterm infants against the three deadliest neonatal infections—necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAC), and sepsis—which together claim the lives of more than 30,000 hospitalized infants per year.

Alissa Welsher, Ph.D. is a Senior Consultant at Elanco Poultry Food Safety. Dr. Welsher received a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as a master’s degree in poultry science and a Ph.D. in cell and molecular biology from the University of Arkansas. Her area of expertise is meat and poultry food safety, and she specializes in integrated pest management (IPM).

Lyle Probst is the CEO of NomadX and an accomplished entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in operations, product development, engineering, biodefense, and advanced technology commercialization.

Alex LeBeau, Ph.D., M.P.H., CIH is the owner of Exposure Assessment Consulting LLC in Orlando, Florida, where he offers toxicology, industrial hygiene, risk assessment, and public health consulting services. Over his 13-year career, he has evaluated environmental and occupational exposures and has performed toxicological evaluations of chemicals and biological agents. He has also performed human health risk assessments of contaminated sites using U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state regulatory guidelines and has monitored remediation activities at those sites. To evaluate the exposure impacts on building occupants, he has performed indoor environmental quality assessments, including Legionella and water quality assessments, at healthcare, residential, and industrial facilities.