Association between pathogenic and indicator pathogenic and indicator bacteria and some control points of a risk assessment model for food producing establishments in Quebec, Canada
Mitigating the risk of foodborne pathogens in food processing establishments is an essential part of food safety control system from an establishment or a food control agency perspective. The objective of this study was to estimate the association between selected microorganisms and scores from 20 control points of a risk assessment inspection model. A cross-sectional study was conducted on a convenient sample of 18 meat processing ready to eat (RTE) establishments food establishments located in Quebec between June and July 2015. Sponge swabs of 900 cm2 in surface area of three food contact and two non-food contact surfaces were sampled per establishment. Real Time-PCR was done using SYBER Green, targeting the siiA gene of Salmonella and both prfA and prs genes of Listeria monocytogenes. We detected one Salmonella (1 %) and 18 L. monocytogenes (20 %) isolates from the 90 samples collected in all establishments. E. coli was present in 7 of 18 (39%) establishments. The mean Log10 counts of E. coli and Total Aerobic Count (TAC) were 1.16 and 5.01, respectively. Among control points assessed by inspectors, “ambient temperature” and the presence of “potential factors supporting introduction of pathogenic microbes, toxic (hazardous) contaminants” showed a positive relationship with the level of L. monocytogenes (p = 0.03) and (p= 0.04) respectively. E. coli was also positively associated with the control point “ambient temperature” (p =0.02) and “environmental sources of contamination” (p = 0.005). The “presence of adequate hand washing facilities” was linked to the load of TAC (p = 0.01) in the establishments. This study provides new insight on the relationship between inspector assessment of specific control points and microbiological load in food establishments.
Food establishments Foodborne pathogens Inspection model Control points