Food Safety and Traceability Guidance Documents

“Controlling Pathogens in Dairy Processing Environments Guidance: Guidance for the U.S. Dairy Industry” provides best practices for controlling Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, and Cronobacter sakazakii and builds upon “Control of Listeria monocytogenes: Guidance for the U.S. Dairy Industry” that was issued in 2016. The “Control of Listeria monocytogenes: Guidance for the U.S. Dairy Industry” focuses on best practices for controlling Listeria monocytogenes. Both guidance documents follow a simple graphic to share knowledge and help establish effective pathogen controls in a dairy manufacturing facility. The “Control of Listeria monocytogenes: Guidance for the U.S. Dairy Industry” is also available in a Spanish-language version.

This document provides guidance to manufacturers of dairy powders in the event of a pathogen positive event. Continuous dairy drying systems can produce a large quantity of product within a short timeframe which can lead to large amounts of product being implicated if a pathogen is detected in the finished product. This guidance document goes beyond the historical view of “clean breaks” to provide a framework for investigating potential hygienic separation points, which may help reduce the amount of implicated product. The document summarizes the components to include in any investigation, and also includes a case study and root cause investigation template. Each scenario is unique, and the effectiveness of the food safety based programs in place, the data available, and the ability to identify the root cause will all be factors in the evaluation.  This is a tool to help with prevention and guide decision making, but ultimately any decisions must be made by and are the responsibility of the company.

Because brine systems come in direct contact with product, it is important to make sure they don’t become a food safety issue. The Innovation Center worked with experts with extensive brine cheese experience to identify food safety best practices. This guidance document focuses on these elements of brine management, with an emphasis on microbiological controls.