Impact of the Sanitation Regime on Production Safety of Paff Pastry in the Food Processing Plant

Food is essential for a person's life, it is a source of energy and substances that enable the activity of all his organs. However, food is also a biological substance, which itself is subject to certain changes, sometimes targeted in their production or cooking, sometimes undesirable changes due to the activity of certain food components or the action of microorganisms.The primary role of each food processing plant should be to ensure daily proper cleaning and sanitation, thus ensuring perfect hygiene of the premises in operation due to the prevention of foodborne diseases. Based on the results obtained in our study, we can concluce that the sanitation regime in the evaluated premises of paff pastry production is at a good level and the disinfection in the production of puff pastry is effective. Aspiral Persteril 15 disinfectant at 0.4 % concentration and time exposure of 30 minutes was effective on all evaluated surfaces in individual monitored parts of production with the exception of puff pastry production part, where we recorded on technology, specifically on slicing knife 35 CFU (colony forming units) of total count of bacteria and 3 CFU of coliform bacteria after disinfection. The situation did not improve even until the begining of production, the total count of bacteria increase to 45 CFU and coliform bacteria to 4 CFU.

Plant Location Selection for Food Production by Considering the Regional and Seasonal Supply Vulnerability of Raw Materials

A production capacity analysis considering market demand and raw materials is very important to design a new plant. However, in the food processing industry, the supply uncertainty of raw materials is very high, depending on the production site and the harvest season, and further, it is not straightforward to analyze too complex food production systems by using an analytical optimization model. For these reasons, this study presents a simulation-based decision support model to select the right location for a new food processing plant. We first define three supply vulnerability factors from the standpoint of regional as well as seasonal instability and present an assessment method for supply vulnerability based on fuzzy quantification. The evaluated vulnerability scores are then converted into raw material supply variations for food production simulation to predict the quarterly production volume of a new food processing plant. The proposed selection procedure is illustrated using a case study of semiprocessed kimchi production. The best plant location is proposed where we can reduce and mitigate risks when supplying raw material, thereby producing a target production volume steadily.

An outbreak of listeriosis linked to turkey meat products in the Czech Republic, 2012–2016

Since 2012–2016 an increased number of listeriosis cases, especially from one region of the Czech Republic, were observed. Most of them were caused by strains of serotype 1/2a, clonal complex 8, indistinguishable by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Twenty-six human cases were reported, including two neonatal cases in twins. Three cases were fatal. The typing of Listeria monocytogenes isolates from food enabled to confirm a turkey meat delicatessen as the vehicle of infection for this local outbreak in the Moravian-Silesian Region. The food strains belonging to identical pulsotype were isolated from ready-to-eat turkey meat products packaged by the same producer between 2012 and 2016. This fact confirms that the described L. monocytogenes outbreak strain probably persisted in the environment of the aforementioned food-processing plant over several years. Whole-genome sequencing confirmed a very close relationship (zero to seven different alleles) between isolates from humans, foods and swabs from the environment of the food-processing plant under investigation.

Listeria monocytogenes Isolates Carrying Virulence-Attenuating Mutations in Internalin A Are Commonly Isolated from Ready-to-Eat Food Processing Plant and Retail Environments

ABSTRACT Listeria monocytogenes is a human foodborne pathogen that may cause an invasive disease known as listeriosis in susceptible individuals. Internalin A (InlA; encoded by inlA) is a virulence factor that facilitates crossing of host cell barriers by L. monocytogenes. At least 19 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in inlA that result in a premature stop codon (PMSC) have been described worldwide. SNPs leading to a PMSC in inlA have been shown to be causally associated with attenuated virulence. L. monocytogenes pathogens carrying virulence-attenuating (VA) mutations in inlA have been commonly isolated from ready-to-eat (RTE) foods but rarely have been associated with human disease. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of VA SNPs in inlA among L. monocytogenes from environments associated with RTE food production and handling. More than 700 L. monocytogenes isolates from RTE food processing plant (n = 409) and retail (n = 319) environments were screened for the presence of VA SNPs in inlA. Overall, 26.4% of isolates from RTE food processing plant and 32.6% of isolates from retail environments carried a VA mutation in inlA. Food contact surfaces sampled at retail establishments were significantly (P < 0.0001) more likely to be contaminated by a L. monocytogenes isolate carrying a VA mutation in inlA (56% of 55 isolates) compared with nonfood contact surfaces (28% of 264 isolates). Overall, a significant proportion of L. monocytogenes isolated from RTE food production and handling environments have reduced virulence. These data will be useful in the revision of current and the development of future risk assessments that incorporate strain-specific virulence parameters.