Food Safety and Factory Design
Introduction
During the last 50 years consumer choice has been transformed by developments in the production, distribution and retailing of food. In the UK the Food Safety Act 1990 imposes an obligation on all suppliers to take all reasonable precautions and exercise due diligence at all stages.
Consequently there are various quality management systems which have been introduced to ensure control of this key aspect. Amongst the best is the excellent British Retail Standard. This standard was developed to assist Retailers in their fulfilment of legal obligations and protection of the consumer. It is proving to be an extremely useful management tool in farmed salmon processing.
All food quality management systems embody the HACCP principles of the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration developed this food safety program nearly 30 years ago for astronauts. It focuses on preventing hazards which could cause food-borne illnesses by applying science-based controls, from raw material to finished products. This proactive approach is more effective in protecting our food safety than the reactive system of random product sampling after manufacture. On the 1st September 2005 ISO published the new International Standard designed to ensure safe food supply chains worldwide, ISO 22000:2005 Food Safety management systems - Requirements for any organization in the food chain. It works closely with the Codex Alimentarius Commission.
Nevis Marine can assist you in the development of your food safety systems, delivering effective practical management techniques alongside our systematic ISO approach.
For example one notable organism occasionally found in low quantities on smoked salmon production is Listeria monocytogenes, a bacteria associated with serious human illness after eating heavily contaminated pates and blue cheese. Listeria spp can be found throughout our environment and it is therefore understandable that occasional isolates contaminate the skin of farmed salmon along with a number of our other common food types. Effective control of this organism is always possible with care.
Serotyping these isolates confirmed that all were strains not associated with human deaths, whilst interestingly those found in the processing plant were not of the same strain as those found in the farming environment.
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