Is Your Processing Facility Prepared For FSMA's Produce Safety Standards?
By Sam Lewis
High-profile foodborne illness cases seem to be popping up more and more in daily headlines. In response to those cases, the food industry is currently undertaking a makeover in its protocols and regulations regarding them. Here, Brian Zomorodi, VP of Quality & Food Safety at Apio, answers my questions about FSMA’s planned protocols for wash water, as well best practices in wash water verification and validation.
Food Online: What is the 10,000-foot view of FSMA’s New Produce Safety Standards? What significant changes to day-to-day operations will the industry need to implement to become compliant?
Zomorodi: FSMA is the most comprehensive overhaul of the food safety regulations conducted in decades. FSMA requires food manufacturers to understand hazards and their risks for the foods they produce and implement validated solutions to prevent food contamination. Considering the wide range of variability in produce and processes involved, the industry’s challenge would be exerting disciplines to consistently adhere to a series of pre-established and validated processes that can minimize or eliminate food safety hazards.
Food Online: What are the planned protocols for wash water validation in fresh produce? How can produce processors best prepare for those protocols?
Zomorodi: In collaboration with the FDA and the USDA, a handful of industry experts and scientists are working to develop a White Paper on Wash Water Validation. Despite knowledge gaps, this paper, in alignment with FSMA, is attempting to offer three validation options for processors with different capabilities. Validation will demonstrate that:
Option 1: Cross contamination is prevented under worst-case operational conditions, as shown by using product inoculated with a suitable surrogate.
Option 2: Minimum antimicrobial level is achieved under worst-case operational conditions, as shown by using antimicrobial sensors.
Option 3: Minimum antimicrobial levels are maintained in each processing run, without considering worst case conditions.
Food Online: How can produce companies validate those protocols are working? What best practices might they adopt to ensure validation?
Zomorodi: Based on the capabilities of produce companies, one of the options may be selected to validate the effectiveness of the wash system. Produce processors should replace the current labor intensive manual monitoring methodology with available and cost effective continuous monitoring probes and sanitizer injection systems. These affordable automated monitoring systems will reduce daily operational complexities, improve measurement reliability and have the potential of reducing sanitizer’s cost. Additionally, they can be used to demonstrate continuous compliance with processor’s validated standard for sanitizer level.
About Brian Zomorodi
Brian Zomorodi is a 32-year veteran of the Fresh-Cut Produce industry. Brian joined Apio Inc., a leader in Fresh-cut Vegetables and salads in 2015 as their Vice President of Quality and Food Safety. Originally he started his career with Ready Pac in 1984. He developed and led their Research & Development, Quality Assurance and Food Safety Departments as Sr. Vice President for 31 years.
Brian has been responsible for launching several successful Fresh-Cut product lines for the retail and food service industry and in developing many food safety & quality assurance systems. He has been actively involved in establishing standards and guidelines for Fresh-Cut produce and has many publications.
Brian, who holds a M.S. degree in Food Science, is a recipient of many distinguished awards. He has actively served in a number of technical councils for trade organizations including PMA, UFPA and global food service companies such as McDonald’s and YUM! as a founding member.
For more information about FSMA’s Produce Safety Standards, be sure to attend the 12th Annual North American Summit on Food Safety, where Brian Zomorodi will be sharing insights on complying with FSMA’s wash water validation and verification protocols. The North American Summit on Food Safety is the only event in Canada bringing together Food Safety & Quality Assurance professionals from across Canada and the U.S. to cohesively tackle major safety and quality issues. This year’s summit takes place April 20-21, 2016 at the Old Mill Inn, Toronto, ON. For more information, click here.