Importancia del control higiénico de las superficies alimentarias mediante técnicas rápidas y tradicionales para evitar y/o minimizar las contaminaciones cruzadas

by Fuster i Valls, Núria

Despite there is not a legal document demanding a microbiological control of surfaces, the concern on the importance of monitoring its hygiene sanitation is growing among most of alimentary industries. Consequently, most sanitation programs are designed to reduce, or even eliminate, the microbial contamination, and organic food debris of food surfaces. This measure is meant to minimize the recontamination risk to guarantee a safety product. Nowadays, a factor to take into account to design sanitation programs is a microbial community called biofilm which was omitted in the past until efficient tools to detect it were developed. Therefore there is growing interest in research and development of novel tools to study, detect, and characterize microbes and biofilms in industrials environments. However, knowledge about their validity in practical industrial use is still scarce. This dissertation describes and compares traditional and rapid methods used to evaluate surface microbial contamination in laboratory conditions, later using the acquired experience a study of monitoring and microbiological criteria for food industry has been implemented. In addition the study addresses the importance of isolating microorganisms from industrial environment in order to reach more effective sanitation programs. On the other hand, this dissertation describes the experience acquired during several months in the United States of America. During this research stage, the efficacy of several decontamination substances was evaluated on animal hides for its implementation in the regulated American decontamination carcasses.