Risk‐Based Approach for Microbiological Food Safety Management in the Dairy Industry: The Case of Listeria monocytogenes in Soft Cheese Made from Pasteurized Milk

Abstract

According to Codex Alimentarius Commission recommendations, management options applied at the process production level should be based on good hygiene practices, HACCP system, and new risk management metrics such as the food safety objective. To follow this last recommendation, the use of quantitative microbiological risk assessment is an appealing approach to link new risk-based metrics to management options that may be applied by food operators. Through a specific case study, Listeria monocytogenes in soft cheese made from pasteurized milk, the objective of the present article is to practically show how quantitative risk assessment could be used to direct potential intervention strategies at different food processing steps. Based on many assumptions, the model developed estimates the risk of listeriosis at the moment of consumption taking into account the entire manufacturing process and potential sources of contamination. From pasteurization to consumption, the amplification of a primo-contamination event of the milk, the fresh cheese or the process environment is simulated, over time, space, and between products, accounting for the impact of management options, such as hygienic operations and sampling plans. A sensitivity analysis of the model will help orientating data to be collected prioritarily for the improvement and the validation of the model. What-if scenarios were simulated and allowed for the identification of major parameters contributing to the risk of listeriosis and the optimization of preventive and corrective measures.

Detection of the contamination sources of Listeria monocytogenes in pickled white cheese production process line and genotyping with the pulsed-field gel electrophoresis method

“…Contamination may occur at different points (4,5), from the contaminated raw milk, to the plant environment and the equipment, to the heating process. The ubiquity of bacteria (2) and biofilm formation on many various surfaces (e.g., stainless steel, glass, wood, plastic, carton) are considered major factors in the increasing incidence of cross-contamination (18,19). The three isolates of L. monocytogenes identified through the cultural method were determined to have the hly gene (732 bp).…”

Estimation and evaluation of management options to control and/or reduce the risk of not complying with commercial sterility

“…Beside the original scientific result concerning an aseptic UHT dairy product line, the added value of this study was also the presentation of a methodology enabling to quantitatively evaluate the management options to control/reduce a risk. There are only few studies describing similar approaches, at least in the food safety or food spoilage fields (Crouch et al, 2009;Gkogka et al, 2013;Perez-Rodriguez et al, 2006;Tenenhaus-Aziza et al, 2014). Having a modular model structure, with each module covering different microbial pathways, helps in performing a logical risk analysis.…”

Risk assessment of proteolytic Clostridium botulinum in canned foie gras

“…Recently, in their comprehensive study on proteolytic C. botulinum, Anderson et al (2011) have mathematically integrated raw material initial contamination (H 0 ), effect of thermal treatment on microbial inactivation (ΣR) and spore inhibition (ΣI) to the Food Safety Objective (FSO). More generally, applications of risk-based approaches in microbial safety management has been gaining interest in the last decade, with applications on vegetative pathogens (Gkogka et al, 2013a;Membré et al, 2007;Tenenhaus-Aziza et al, 2014;Uyttendaele et al, 2006) but also on spore forming pathogenic bacteria (Crouch et al, 2009). …”