Not all food and beverage plants require the same levels of environmental monitoring, but for those facilities (especially RTE) that do, several issues have risen to the surface in terms of FSMA requirements—both in sampling location(s) and frequency, and in the depth (e.g., species, strains) of pathogen testing to be used. These issues were brought to the forefront in a recent FSMA Friday webinar featuring Dr. David Acheson, president and CEO of The Acheson Group and former FDA CFSAN associate commissioner for foods. The monthly webinar is hosted by SafetyChain Software.
Under FSMA’s CGMP, HARPC for Human Food, product testing and environmental monitoring are listed as possible verification activities. But like other preventive control management components, they are required when appropriate to the type of food produced and facility, as well as the nature of the preventive control and the preventive control’s role in the facility’s food safety system.