Preventing Listeria in RTE processing plants

Why Should You Attend:

The food safety crises of the last decade—deli meat, cheeses, sprouts, cantaloupe etc—underscores the need for better trained and well equipped Quality managers. Prevention of foodborne illness requires a clean, sanitized plant and effective HAACP programs. You, the Quality manager, know all too well that your food safety focus can be occasionally blurred by the daily responsibilities of exceeding customers’ expectations, preparing for 3rd party audits, and unannounced regulatory inspections.

This webinar will help keep your Ready-To-Eat products safer for customers by focusing on the things that typically cause foodborne outbreaks: gaps in HAACP and other prerequisite building blocks, weak GMP’s, and sanitation programs w/o effective verification. In addition, you’ll see areas that your facility may be weak in and learn some tools to address the areas of where Listeria can be hiding, and how to clean well enough to eradicate them.

Learning Objectives:

Attendees will learn more about the keys to preventing listeria in the processing environment, take an in depth look at a strong sanitation program.

Areas Covered in the Seminar:

• Preventing Cross Contamination.
• Essentials of an Environmental Swabbing Program.
• Rotate your Sanitizer, - which one?
• Antimicrobial Treatments.
• Personal Hygiene.
• The supplier's role in training the sanitation team.
• Control the floors, control the bacteria.
• Chemical Applications.

Who will Benefit:

This webinar will provide valuable assistance to all personnel in:

• Quality Assurance and Quality Control Managers concerned about listeria
• Sanitation Supervisors
• Operations Managers
• Plant Managers
• Food Safety Managers
• Product integrity Managers

Instructor Profile:

Jeffrey Brusseau, specializes in designing new sanitation procedures and providing ongoing support to QC and QA managers and training for sanitation staff in food processing environments. He’s worked closely with and been invited to train regulatory agencies, inspectors, plant managers and operations directors in both the US and Canada. Jeffrey has over 15 years of experience in the food plant sanitation industry. He recently completed a 2 year project with Health Canada to bring an emerging technology to listeria prevention. Jeffrey is involved in food safety through his Technical Support role with the Wesmar Company, a well-respected manufacturer and supplier of cleaners and sanitizers to the food processing industry.

He has many years of experience in taking a processor into the realm of BRC and SQF standards. He has presented numerous educational sessions for industry specialists specifically in the areas of sanitation solutions, listeria and pathogen prevention and corrective actions.

He has noted that: “Given the goal of continuous improvement in most food plants; keeping a strong food safety emphasis that helps prevents a recall brings with it a huge amount of pressure. Several managers have told us what keeps them awake at night, and it's these ‘invisible' issues such as Listeria that can be most anywhere in the facility, including the freezer.”

Topic Background:

With the crisis we have seen in food safety in the last decade, deli meat, cheeses, sprouts, cantaloupe etc, QC managers are under a lot of pressure to maintain a clean sanitized facility while focusing on their HAACP plan and other crucial responsibilities. Then there are 3rd party audits and inspections to deal with; your customers they know when the inspector is coming and are anxious to hear your latest score!

The hands on support of your chemical supplier; the buy in from senior management to have a clean and sanitized facility is crucial to preventing pathogens like listeria in your process.

Given the goal of continuous improvement in most food plants; keeping a strong food safety emphasis that helps prevents a recall brings with it a huge amount of pressure. Several managers have told us what keeps them awake at night, and it’s these “invisible” issues such as listeria which can be most anywhere in the facility, including the freezer.

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