FDA: Environmental Monitoring and Root Cause Analysis Were Key to Spotting Salmonella Threat

In the latest highly-publicized Salmonella-related food safety incident, Midwest Poultry Services recalled more than 1.5 million cartons of eggs due to concerns over possible Salmonella Enteritidis contamination.

The eggs were shipped to food service and retail customers in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana and available to consumers in several states across the South and Southwest.

The FDA stated that the company identified the issue "through proactive environmental monitoring practices and root cause analysis.”

In a post on the Midwest Poultry Services website, the company wrote that it identified the issue “on two of its farm locations in Texas through proactive environmental monitoring practices and a robust internal investigation. The company also initiated its own testing protocols to identify potential sources of Salmonella Entertidis."

The company said that it decided to proactively recall the eggs from two of its farms as a precautionary measure and also began diverting eggs to a breaking plant to pasteurize them and kill any foodborne pathogens.

“Strengthening the Entire Food System”

The FDA defines Root Cause Analysis as “a structured, analytical approach used to identify the underlying cause of a food safety incident. Rather than simply identifying causes or outcomes, an RCA helps to understand why an incident occurred so that targeted interventions can be developed to prevent similar problems in the future.”

Root Cause Analysis is a crucial, preventive food safety principle that helps workplaces build food safety and production systems in which risk is mitigated.

Performing a RCA provides insights that can be used to build preventive action plans and also indicate which factors can potentially cause a food safety incident, bolstering the ability to respond quickly to a real life event.

In a May article titled “Strengthening Food Safety through Root Cause Analysis,” the FDA wrote that “Rather than simply identifying causes or outcomes, an RCA helps to understand why an incident occurred so that targeted interventions can be developed to prevent similar problems in the future.”

The “Seek and Destroy” Approach to Contaminants

In a March interview with Rootwurks, Rootwurks Consulting and CEO of Peak Advisors, Jeff Chilton, described Environmental Monitoring Programs as part of a “seek and destroy” approach to contaminants in production environments.

“Most facilities have an opportunity to improve their environmental monitoring programs. These programs are absolutely critical for you to be able to seek and destroy any environmental pathogens in the area,” Chilton said, adding, “As an industry, we all have to step up and make our environmental monitoring programs more robust and risk-based.”

In a June article on Food Engineering, Matthew Hahs wrote that “Effective environmental monitoring programs are defined not by how much data they collect, but by how quickly they trace data forward and backward to isolate the source and analyze the impact.”

“When contamination occurs, speed and traceability are the defining factors. Food safety and supply chain teams need to trace contaminants back to their point of origin, understand where the affected product has moved through production and supply chain processes, and mitigate the spread before it becomes widespread.”

EMPs require regularly taking samples from throughout the workplace in a rotating fashion to make sure all surfaces are covered, and realizing that contaminants are inevitable. It requires a skeptical approach that says that the lack of positive tests doesn’t mean there are no contaminants in the workplace, it just means you aren’t searching hard enough.

Bolster Your RCA and EMP with Rootwurks

EMP and RCA are core components of a preventive and proactive food safety culture. Learning modules covering both RCA and EMP are included for all enterprise users of the Rootwurks platform and can easily be incorporated into custom learning plans.

In addition, food safety professionals can enroll in our Root Cause Analysis and Implementing an Environmental Monitoring Program courses, both of which are self-paced, 100% mobile and currently available on the Rootwurks online store.