Salmonella is an eternal ‘hot topic’ in the world of ready-to-eat foods, as it should be with over 2,000 strains (many of which are pathogenic), and a variety of ways that infection can manifest itself – from vomiting and diarrhoea to septic shock. It is particularly dangerous to the young and infirm where contracting the disease can lead to life altering outcomes, or even death. Salmonella is easily killed by cooking and does not produce toxins or relevance to food. However the risks it poses in the world of raw foods should not be underestimated, for a variety of reasons.
Enterobacteriaceae Testing
Salmonella is part of a larger group of Bacteria named Enterobacteriaceae. Testing for Entero’s (as I shall be referring to them from here on) is often used as a basic “is it safe?” check for food. The group includes things like Salmonella and E.coli and if there are no Entero’s, then there must be none of these nasties – Right? Unfortunately this is not the case. That’s due to a combination of how sensitive a quantitative microbiological test is able to be, when compared to a non-quantitative one. In short it’s very possible to get a <10 result for Entero’s whilst having a confirmed and detected Salmonella.
Salmonella Contamination
As already mentioned, the variety of different conditions it can cause is long. Similarly the bacteria itself is fairly ubiquitous. It can be found most classically in poultry and dirty water, but is also often found in pork, salads (especially unwashed), dairy products and of course people. Salmonella infection of an operative presents a very real risk to a manufacturer and there are mandatory procedures in place to make sure that workers who may be infected are not allowed to be part of the food chain. Anecdotal evidence shows that Salmonella is extremely easy to move around a food production facility causing contamination (and accompanying havoc). It survives well on surfaces, and the typical microbiological tests for it are slow, require complex confirmation steps and have a tendency to be very difficult to interpret if there is a heavy bacterial load.
Testing Complexities
My own experience working in laboratories testing for Salmonella has shown me that the issue of contaminating a customer sample with (most often) the laboratories own positive control strain is a very real problem, and indeed the people who accredit these facilities agree, as generally all positives must be confirmed to NOT be the laboratory strain. All in all, if someone had tried to design an organism meant to cause trouble for labs and food manufacturers, they couldn’t have done a much better job than Salmonella.
Industry Response Gaps
For some food producers a positive Salmonella result can come as a bit of a surprise, and my own opinion is that the industry sometimes has trouble putting together a consistent response. This is exacerbated as Salmonella positives are not super common, which can lead to a bit of a dead end when trying to trend or look for root causes/corrective actions etc.
Hygiene's Crucial Role
The approach that I have always taken is to start at the factory and then move above and beyond those 4 walls. Start with facts and then move onto possibilities. Initially things in the factory – hygiene, health, raw materials and procedures. Are you sure that raw materials are not introducing this? Are all staff fit and healthy, are all procedures being followed – people taking off their production boots when going to the toilet etc (this is a real example of something that was found to have caused Salmonella contamination – Boots into loo, Boots on factory floor, Bucket on factory floor, bucket used to empty the last bits of a tote bin). And hygiene. Always hygiene. Good hygiene practices are the gold standard of being able to respond to these situations. A comprehensive hygiene plan gives an unbeatable overview of what is actually happening inside the factory and the more data, the better a picture you’ll have. It can show you the problem areas that you may need to focus on and can help identify some of the potential causes we identified earlier.
Consumer Awareness
Finally, there’s thinking outside of the factory. These will be things like knowing your product and how it’s treated by consumers in the real world. Are the people who buy it likely to be high-risk? Does it clearly show the necessary cooking and storage instructions? A large contributor to the Salmonella statistics are when people eat things like frozen chicken goujons which have been blanched in oil at the factory. These still need cooking, but often this is not super obvious on the packaging, and people often eat them anyway. Obviously a manufacturer cannot retain complete control over their product, but at the end of the day – if the worst happens – you should be able to assert that you’ve done everything you could have done to protect people.
FreshCheck Solutions
FreshCheck’s innovative hygiene verification system offers a powerful tool in the fight against Salmonella contamination in food production environments. By using a swab-based colour change method, FreshCheck allows producers to quickly and easily verify cleanliness, with results in under 30 seconds. This simplicity and rapid feedback can be a game-changer when addressing Salmonella, a pathogen notorious for its persistence and difficulty to detect. Unlike traditional ATP testing, FreshCheck’s system is more cost-effective and provides superior sensitivity across a wider range of contaminants. In the context of Salmonella management, FreshCheck’s tools empower food producers to proactively identify hygiene risks, maintain safer environments, and respond immediately to potential contamination issues, thereby safeguarding public health. Contact us today for a demo and see how FreshCheck can enhance your food safety protocols.