This symposium will address hygienic zoning for food plants and the barriers between zones that minimize potential for transfer of pathogenic microorganisms from potentially contaminated areas to finished food products. This food safety system may include multiple barriers incorporating physical and procedural controls, the designs of which depend on the type of product, layout of product flow within the plant and microbial reduction steps during product manufacture. This symposium will be valuable for those who work with environmental pathogen control in food plants such as industry quality assurance personnel, consultants, academicians and regulators. Also students will benefit from an understanding of these controls. This symposium is very timely especially for those who are working currently to implement enhanced environmental control. The first two speakers will present information on regulatory experiences with food contamination/illness incidents attributed to transfer of bacteria within plants, their up-to-date findings regarding location of pathogens in food plants with possible product contamination paths and examples of risky situations they have encountered that could be mitigated by enhanced hygienic zoning controls. The second two speakers will present examples of hygienic zoning control systems contributing to safety of high moisture (processed meat) products and low moisture (cereal) products. This will include specific descriptions of controls that prevent transfer of contamination by personnel, equipment and materials and their findings regarding effectiveness of controls. The fifth and sixth speakers will present information on studies related to understanding modes of contamination transfer such as hands, clothing, footwear, equipment, water and air.

Presentations