As food safety professionals, we partner with customers to help prevent recalls and foodborne illnesses; Fortrex delivers proactive sanitation programs, expert chemical solutions, and on-site guidance that minimizes Listeria risk .
Listeria monocytogenes is a bad bug. It is the third leading cause of death from food poisoning in the United States. People who are pregnant, elderly, or have a weakened immune system due to an underlying medical condition have a higher risk of serious illness and death from a Listeria infection.
It is our job to help protect the public and our loved ones from a Listeria infection through the effective execution of our sanitation programs all year round, and especially in ready-to-eat facilities.
Outside conditions can enable Listeria to grow better and faster. These outside conditions are temperature and water resources. Warmer weather and higher humidity breeds condensation issues in food facilities. Condensation becomes a water source for Listeria and other microbes, which can lead to microbial problems in the plant.
Removing condensation is a sanitation control, and it is just one piece of a larger Listeria Control Program. In addition to sanitation controls, managing Listeria also requires environmental monitoring, hygienic design, process validation, good manufacturing practices, hygienic zoning, and freezer/cooler management. All these elements are needed to keep Listeria at bay and to stop it from entering the food supply.
However, if a food product enters commerce that has been confirmed to be contaminated with Listeria, a product recall may be triggered. As food safety professionals, we partner with customers to help prevent recalls and foodborne illnesses; Fortrex delivers proactive sanitation programs, expert chemical solutions, and on-site guidance that minimizes Listeria risk .
Even with a superior sanitation program, plant environments are not sterile. Listeria monocytogenes is very widespread in nature, which makes it likely to be introduced into food facilities. Once Listeria enters the plant, it has properties that allow it to survive and compete with other microbes. By being able to grow at refrigeration temperatures, Listeria has the upper hand compared to organisms that cannot. Other survival advantages include being resistant to freezing and tolerating high salt conditions; it can also adapt to stresses, such as heat or acidity, in the production setting.
Because Listeria is skilled at surviving in production facilities, ready-to-eat plants are particularly vulnerable. We double down on our efforts to prevent and remove Listeria from the plant environment by following all our sanitation programs. Listeria control is baked into our Food Safety Playbook; a daily guide for our teams to ensure safe food for all.
For over 50 years, Fortrex has prioritized delivering on time and without disruption. That starts with understanding the sanitation process, investing in training, and continuously improving how work gets done.
This espisode features compelling stories of Fortrex’s frontline sanitation professionals, as well as the unsung heroes working behind the scenes to keep customers’ plants safe and clean.
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