Whether you’re in the business of manufacturing cheese, milk products, milk powders, cultured products, ice cream or anything else in the dairy world, your final products must be wholesome and pathogen-free. And an environmental monitoring program (EMP) is one of the most important tools to keep pathogens out of the product stream. A well-designed, robust EMP will protect your brand and save millions in costly recalls.
The purpose of an EMP is to find and eliminate the source(s) of contamination with a “seek-and-destroy” mission to determine areas with special maintenance requirements (formation of growth niches). It can be used to evaluate the hygienic design of the facility, tools and equipment, as well as assess the overall plant sanitation and hygiene programs, including management of critical control points. Finally, it will establish acceptable baseline data and microbiological criteria for each sample site.