Based on the CODEX Alimentarius, the food industry should provide “evidence that a control measure or combination of control measures, if properly implemented, is capable of controlling the hazard to a specific outcome." Scientific evidences can be obtained by performing challenge tests during food processing. However, the introduction of pathogens in food production environments is, of course, not sensible. Consequently, the use of surrogate microorganisms (such as Enterococcus faecium for Salmonella spp. or Clostridium sporogenes for Clostridium botulinum) for in-plant control measures validation is recommended. One major issue when using this methodology is to assess the behavior of the pathogen in-situ with the data from surrogate experiments. The objective of this symposium is to illustrate and discuss the use of probabilistic approaches to quantitatively assess the log reduction of the targeted pathogen with the use of surrogate microorganisms. Deterministic values, with conservative assumptions, have been traditionally used. However, the use of probabilistic approaches offers many advantages, such as encompassing the variability and uncertainty inherent to modelling biological phenomena. On one hand, uncertainty reflects not only the lack of information available, but also the approximation by a functional form of a real phenomenon. On the other hand, variability refers to natural or non-controlled heterogeneity between individuals. This presentation will i) present quantitative tools and data helpful for process validation and ii) present practical examples of the use of such probabilistic approaches to predict pathogen behavior with the use of data from surrogate microorganisms.

Presentations