As an important part of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) programs, hygiene monitoring can be used to recognize potential hazards to food and consumer safety. With accurate measurement, action to regulate and control these hazards can be defined and implemented.
The first step in a hygiene monitoring program is the identification of Critical Control Points throughout the production process of the product. In general, these points may include any place where a change in process, or a new process can introduce a potential hazard to human health. Next, prevention measures are established at all CCP’s. Clean in Place or cleaning protocols are one example of a CCP preventative measure.
Generally these include standard operating procedures on cleaning methods, and frequency, as well as how the facility will monitor the effectiveness of these protocols. After cleaning, surfaces can appear to be visibly clean but organic residue – anything living or once living such as bacteria, fungi, food residues – may still remain. During monitoring of these processes, thresholds are established and caution areas identified.
Actual testing data is gathered and should be maintained in a log system identifying potential problems as well as the corrective action that was taken. An effective process log will provide an accurate assessment of the cleaning regime over time, and tell you if your process is improving, deteriorating or staying the same.
Visual Assessment is the cheapest, but least reliable method of hygiene monitoring. Many, potentially hazardous situations are simply not detectable through visual inspection. Traditional microbiological methods identify the actual “viable” bacteria, however, these methods take over 24 to 48 hours and do not identify other residues and bio-films that can be a nutrient source for bacteria not yet present.
In recent years, ATP testing has emerged as a widely accepted, rapid, cost effective alternative to traditional testing methods for hygiene monitoring programs. The basis of the ATP results assumes that as an indicator of surface cleanliness, if there is no biological contamination, there will be no microbial growth present. The real-time results from ATP testing allows for the rapid identification of problem areas in the HACCP program. However, ATP is only an indicator of the presence or absence of living bacteria. It is not an effective tool for evaluating surface cleanliness, particularly the presence of residual biofilm.
I. Hygiene Monitoring
Effective hygiene monitoring must include an assessment of both the presence of active microbial activity, and the effectiveness of cleaning programs in removing residual biofilms. Biofilms are organic matter produced by microbial organisms. Even after a microbe has been killed, the biofilm may persist on a surface. It is well documented that new microbial activity colonizes and grows up to 50 times faster on a surface with residual biofilm than on a clean surface.
