Maple Leaf Foods reduces Salmonella with enhanced poultry slaughter sanitation

While no food company can promise never to have a food safety problem, Maple Leaf Foods made a very public pledge in 2009 to become a global leader in food safety. Speaking at the 2014 International Production and Processing Expo, Christian Fuchs of Maple Leaf Foods explained the enhanced sanitation approach: It is to attack the bacteria where they are able to live and grow because daily sanitation procedures may not always remove them.

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Failed sites after deep cleaning were ideal 'indicator' sites to monitor and alert the plant when tent steaming was required.
Failed sites after deep cleaning were ideal "indicator" sites to monitor and alert the plant when tent steaming was required.

 

While no food company can promise never to have a food safety problem, Maple Leaf Foods made a very public pledge in 2009 to become a global leader in food safety. It was after the company had a breakdown in food safety in 2008 that led to the deaths of 23 people traced to listeriosis in ready-to-eat (RTE) luncheon and deli meats.  Experts concluded that the Listeria monocytogenes that caused the illness and death originated in a small harborage point deep inside one of the company's meat slicers.

The tragic events of 2008 led Maple Leaf Foods to make six commitments in a "food safety pledge" designed to ensure the problem would not happen again. The commitments included, in part, the daily disassembly, cleaning and sanitation of slicing and processing equipment in the RTE food facilities. Plus every week, these facilities' more complex equipment, such as slicers, are taken apart to a much greater degree for deep cleaning. Controlled steam tenting of this equipment provides an effective kill step for Listeria and other bacteria that may linger after normal cleaning procedures.

Salmonella performance standards in poultry slaughter

Fast-forward to the present-day challenge facing U.S. poultry slaughter plants in meeting new USDA Salmonella performance standards. Though Maple Leaf Foods, being a Canadian company, is not subject to U.S. regulations, the company's food safety managers are committed to achieving similar standards in their poultry slaughter plants that produce raw product.

In addition to 12 ready-to-eat plants, Maple Leaf Foods operates five poultry slaughter plants (four chicken and one turkey) with tray-pack production and three facilities producing ground poultry. The company initially had difficulty in consistently attaining the targeted reductions in Salmonella levels in the raw poultry for the grinding operations.

Sanitation interventions to improve pathogen control in ground chicken

Even the application of extensive benchmarking and Six Sigma methodology failed to provide a solution. That's when Maple Leaf Foods Senior Vice President of Food Safety and Quality Assurance Sharon Beals offered a radical solution: Implement the more stringent sanitation programs of the RTE facilities in the company's slaughter plants supplying the ground poultry operations. It would employ an unheard of combination of muscle power and steam tent cleaning in raw production facilities.

Speaking at the 2014 International Production and Processing Expo, Christian Fuchs of Maple Leaf Foods  explained the enhanced sanitation approach: It is to attack the bacteria where they are able to live and grow because daily sanitation procedures may not always remove them.

Enhanced sanitation in slaughter plant begun in October 2012

The enhanced sanitation was initiated in October 2012 in a two-shift, air-chill broiler chicken slaughter and tray-pack facility. The plant has one ground chicken line running 12 to 16 hours a day. Raw materials for the line include deboned drums and thighs.

  • Equipment on the ground chicken line includes:
  • Stainless steel tanks
  • Skinners
  • Deboners
  • Separator
  • Chiller
  • Stuffer and portioner
  • Two to three additional product conveyors in the process

"The d eep cleaning and steam tenting procedures used in the RTE plants were duplicated in the raw product facility," Fuchs said. "At a set frequency, equipment is torn down to the frame so that all parts can be thoroughly cleaned. Equipment and parts are steam tented [exposed to 165 F for 30 minutes]."

The procedure results in the cleaning of hard-to-reach areas such as sprockets, bearings, seals, and inside the surfaces of electrical junction boxes, panels and PLC cabinets.

"Balance is needed between the use of water pressure and 'muscle' power in the cleaning process," Fuchs told listeners. "Excessive spray gun pressure can lead to meat and fat particles being driven into the interior surfaces of machinery or equipment." On the other hand, he explained, "' Muscle' is more effective on moisture-sensitive equipment surfaces and, while more labor intensive, the results are better."

What is the goal? "The inside of equipment must be as 'clean' as the food contact surfaces," he said.

Enhanced sanitation significantly reduces Salmonella

The enhanced sanitation procedure has resulted in a significant reduction in the incidence of positive Salmonella results in ground chicken, Fuchs said. See Table, "Maple Leaf Foods sanitation interventions ."

Salmonella prevalence was running between 30 percent and 45 percent before implementation of the enhanced sanitation procedures, he said. "Over a seven-month period, it was reduced to between 10 percent and 20 percent, and as low as 5 percent at times."

By monitoring the fluctuations in Salmonella levels during the implementation phase, the food safety team was able to fine-tune the procedure, according to Fuchs. This helped determine the most effective frequency of the testing and cleaning of the various equipment and parts.

Total Plate Count testing has helped the team pinpoint the harborage sites for bacteria. Failed sites after deep cleaning were ideal "indicator" sites to monitor and alert the plant when tent steaming was required.

Lessons learned

The enhanced sanitation procedure is a team effort requiring participation of personnel from plant operations, maintenance and engineering, quality assurance, sanitation and health and safety.

"We need to go deep to clean the equipment, until the last screw is removed -- only then will you truly see the extent of potential harborage areas," Fuchs said.

"Let your data drive your cleaning schedule," he added.

The enhanced sanitation procedure has resulted in an increased preventative maintenance frequency -- especially with respect to bearings.

At the same time, there has been an improvement in product shelf-life.

"Successful program achievement requires management support and encouragement. Constant feedback on results provides motivation to maintain the momentum," Fuchs said.

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