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CFIA: processors to take apart slicers
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has told all
meat processors to take apart and clean their meat
slicers.
According to the CFIA, the requested actions are directly a result of
investigations at Maple Leaf Foods that concluded the likely source of the
deadly listeriosis outbreak.
The outbreak lead to a massive deli meat recall and has killed 14 people.
This was due to bacterial build-up deep inside the mechanical components of two
of its slicers.
"The investigation has highlighted that organic material may become
retained within the inner workings of slicing equipment even after routine
sanitation has been performed and cleaning conducted in accordance with the
manufacturer's specifications," said the CFIA.
Due to this, the agency is advising operators do the following immediately:
At the next scheduled line sanitation, take apart and perform a systematic,
thorough and aggressive cleaning and sanitation procedure on meat slicing
equipment, including all internal non-electronic parts and inform the CFIA
inspector of all details of this exercise.
Perform listeria environmental sampling of contact surfaces; re-sanitise
the equipment prior to reuse; and inform the CFIA inspector of the results of
this exercise.
If warranted, and in consultation with the CFIA inspector, review the
standard cleaning and sanitation procedures for such equipment to ensure that
internal working parts are being suitably cleaned and disinfected on an ongoing
basis; This includes introducing routine listeria environmental sampling on
contact surfaces of the equipment if such testing is not already being
done.
Editor WorldPoultry
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