3 questions with Ana Lozano: Environmental Monitoring Trends

December 05, 2023

We sat down with Ana Maria Lozano, Field Technical Service Representative for United States and Canada Food Safety division, who shared her insights into environmental monitoring current trends in our food safety industry.

What are some regulatory requirements for environmental monitoring?

Before FSMA and SFCR, the mindset was not on preventing contamination, but rather understanding what went wrong once something did. Now, under FSMA and the SFCR, the focus is more on prevention—something that the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) contamination pushed before.

Today, you must implement preventive control programs or plans. The preventive control programs/plans include all those activities a food manufacturer implements to prevent the product's physical, chemical, and biological contamination: from the reception of the raw material during the process until the product is packed and shipped. The manufacturers don’t need just to implement these measures; they also have to prove that they actually work, and it is here where the environmental monitoring program plays a crucial role. Let me give you an example.

The sanitation program is one of the mandatory programs. The sanitation program includes all the cleaning and sanitation activities of a plant—from the cleaning procedures, to the concentration of the chemical solutions, to the time and temperatures needed to clean—just to mention a few components. At the end of the cleaning process, manufacturers cannot just start production. They need to verify that the cleaning process was effective, and that the equipment is ready and safe to be used. How? They can visually verify that it is clean, but that is not enough. They must use tools to help them make that decision easier. Tests like ATP, Listeria Right Now, and allergen rapid tests help them know if the equipment was indeed well cleaned so they can start production with more confidence. Other tests, like indicator microorganisms and pathogen tests, also help them understand the effectiveness of their sanitation program to see if they should adjust their procedures. All the tests I mentioned are part of the environmental monitoring program—the sanitation program is just one of the mandatory preventive programs.

In addition to satisfying a regulatory requirement, the environmental monitoring results also support, validate, and verify that all the measures applied to prevent cross-contamination are working well.

I understand that implementing measures to prevent contamination of our products and keep consumers safe is a big task. But if we only focus on product testing instead of prevention, it’s easier to get product contamination and a possible recall. A recall is a terrible consequence, and yes, it could have legal implications. Still, the mindset should shift away from thinking, “I don’t want a recall,” to a more proactive food safety culture approach that cultivates the mindset, “I don’t want to have an incident that can get a consumer sick.”

What are some emerging trends in environmental monitoring for food safety?

  1. Interpreting the Data

    Data is a common theme we see from interaction with our customers. Yes, many questions are specifically product-related, but after working through the customer’s initial question, it can uncover the more significant concern they are experiencing, which in most cases is how to interpret and use their results from all the tests—from raw materials, pre-ops, and environmental testing, to finished products.

    Before the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) from the FDA and the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) from Health Canada were enacted, manufacturers used to test only final product to verify the product was not contaminated. Today FSMA and SFCR look to eliminate contamination from happening by implementing preventive measures.

    Historically, food safety professionals have been scientists dedicated to caring for the HACCP or HAPCP programs' quality and food safety programs necessary to keep the plants running successfully. With more companies focusing on environmental monitoring to align with the new preventive approach, understanding how to use the data has become challenging. You have results from ATP, allergen testing, and pathogens and indicators testing, which produce significant data. However, putting all those results together and interpreting them is challenging for the industry. This kind of analysis is relatively new, and we are just starting to see companies investing in having systems and teams that specialize in analyzing the data. Being capable of digesting the data and understanding what the story is behind that data are what’s most important right now.

    More than emerging pathogens or new types of testing, I think that understanding how we manage and interpret the data is the most significant trend. Data analysis is the most critical challenge and should be the focus.

  2. Limited Resources

    A growing concern is helping those smaller companies with reduced resources compared to others. These companies need to start managing their software from scratch to help them grow. I have worked in five different companies within the food industry. Each one of them was constantly growing, and along with that, the food industry was consistently growing. As a food safety professional, you realized that if you began with a company when they were first starting out, you continued to grow along with them. That is why it is crucial for those smaller companies to learn to manage an environmental monitoring program early on to ensure they have continued analysis of data to support the company when there are limited resources.

  3. Food Safety Professional Shortage

    In the food industry, particularly within the laboratory departments of food companies, the shortage of technically prepared personnel is an issue that's having a significant impact. We're facing a real challenge in finding individuals with the necessary technical expertise to meet the industry's rigorous standards for safety and quality. It's a crucial concern. However, the introduction of easy-to-use and robust technologies, combined with advanced analytical methods, has the potential to alleviate the personnel shortage by expediting the training process. By simplifying complex tasks and automating routine procedures, such as food testing and quality control, these technologies make it easier for us to quickly bring new employees up to speed. Additionally, they improve the efficiency and accuracy of our analytical processes, ensuring that the food industry can maintain its dedication to delivering safe and high-quality products to consumers.

How important is allergen testing as part of an environmental monitoring and control program?

The thing with allergens is that they can be deadly and have no cure. Consumers who don’t have allergies could get food poisoning and have a good chance of recovering. But if a person allergic to sesame or peanuts, for example, consumes a product with that allergen, it could have greater consequences—they could even die due to an anaphylactic reaction. That’s why regulatory entities focus so much on allergens. Companies should include allergen testing in their environmental monitoring and final product testing to be able to properly label their products so consumers have the necessary information to decide whether to consume or avoid a specific product.

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About the Author

Ana Lazano — Technical Services Representative, Neogen

Ana has over 18 years of experience working in the different food industries, including dairy, water, and condiments. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology from the University of Los Andes and a Master of Sciences degree in Food Safety and Quality Assurance from the University of Guelph. Ana is also an internal auditor of ISO 9001 and a SQF practitioner with diverse expertise, including quality assurance, quality control, good manufacturing practices (GMPs), and the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) system.

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Category: Food Safety, Consumer Goods, Dietary Supplements, Food & Beverage, Milling & Grain, Pet Food, Adulteration, Allergens, Microbiology, Environmental Monitoring