الفهرس 
Production of natural sausage casingsOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The last few years have provided ample evidence that control of food safety is critical. Recent media reports have clearly documented supply chain shortcomings that have threatened consumers’ health and safety. These ongoing problems and the need for consumer safety carry out for additional tools to dramatically reduce or eliminate risks. ISO 22000 is an international standard intended to be used by organizations within the food chain. The purpose of ISO 22000 is to provide a practical approach to ensure the reduction and elimination of food safety risks as a means to protect consumers. Natural casings made from intestine of beef, pork, or lamb are used to stuff meat products such as sausages, salami and frankfurters. Natural casing are contaminated with bacteria of public health significance such as fecal Streptococci, Enterobacteriaceae, coliforms, sulphite reducing Clostridia. These could pose health risk to the consumer.
The present study was conducted to implement ISO 22000 in a processing natural sausage casings factory, to identify all safety hazards and their adequate control at each step within the natural sausage casings production chain, to establish a food safety management system that complies with the requirements of ISO 9001, to develop written prerequisite programs, and to develop a HACCP plan and identification of critical control points (CCPs) for the safe production of natural sausage casings.
The following was adopted to fulfill this aim:
Part I: Establishment, implementation and maintenance of effective arrangements for external and internal communication before and after ISO 22000 implementation.
An auditing checklist was used to check the availability of the parameters and items regarding the establishment, implementation and maintenance of interactive communication in a factory for natural casings before and after ISO 22000 implementation.
Part II: Establishment, operation and update of an effective structured management system (ISO 9001:2000) before and after ISO 22000 implementation.
An auditing checklist was used to check the availability of the parameters and items regarding establishment, operation and update of an effective structured management system (ISO 9001:2000) in a factory for natural casings before and after ISO 22000 implementation. It covered the following parameters and items which include: management responsibility, resource management, planning and realization of safe products, validation, verification and improvement of the food safety management system.
Part III: Integration of prerequisite programs (PRPs) and the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system.
1. Prerequisite programs
An auditing checklist was used to check the availability of the parameters and items regarding the prerequisite programs in a factory for natural casings before and after ISO 22000 implementation. It covered the following items which include: construction and lay-out of the casing industry building and associated utilities, lay-out of premises, including work space and employee facilities, supplies of air, water, energy and other utilities, supporting services, including waste and sewage disposal, the suitability of equipment and its accessibility for cleaning, maintenance and preventive maintenance, management of purchased materials, supplies, disposals and handling of products, measures for prevention of cross contamination, cleaning and sanitizing, pest control and personnel hygiene.
2. ISO 22000 analysis worksheet for the determination of prerequisite programs for casing processing.
3. Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP).
The principles of the HACCP system and preliminary steps were integrated and applied to the casings processing according to ISO 22000 requirements. This was done through establishing the following; assemble of the HACCP team, product (natural casings) description and its intended use, process flow diagrams, hazard analysis, hazard identification and preventive measures of casing processing steps, identification of critical control points (CCPs) and establishment of critical limits, monitoring, corrective actions, records keeping and verification activities.
Sampling
Natural casings samples were examined physically and microbiologically before and after ISO 22000 implementation as follows:
Before ISO 22000 implementation, for the hazard analysis a total of 120 natural casings samples were collected from the factory. These were distributed equally from the different steps used to handle the casings. Additionally, a total of 50 samples were collected from the factory environment. Also, twenty samples were collected from water which was involved in the production process.
After ISO 22000 implementation, as verification procedures, a total of 42 natural casings samples were collected from the factory. These were distributed equally from the different steps used to handle the casings. Additionally, a total of 50 samples were collected from the factory environment. Also, twenty samples were collected from water which was involved in the production process.
Results of the present study revealed the following:
External communication arrangements for communicating with suppliers, customers or consumers, and regulatory authorities were established.
Internal communication among which was the ability to inform the food safety team in a timely manner about changes related to products was established.
Top management provided evidence of its commitment to implementation and improvement of the ISO 22000, and this facilitated its implementation in natural casings processing.
Top management defined, communicated and reviewed a food safety policy which was appropriate to the role of the natural casings processing in the food chain.
Appointed food safety team leader who had the responsibility and authority to manage a food safety team, and ensure that the system was implemented, maintained and updated.
Adequate resources for the establishment, implementation, maintenance and updating of the food safety management system was provided by the organization.
The food safety team and the other personnel carrying out activities having an impact on food safety had appropriate education, training, skills and experience.
Procedures to manage potential emergency situations and accidents that impact food safety were established, implemented and maintained.
Planned internal audits were conducted to determine whether the food safety management system conformed to the planned arrangements, to requirements established by the organization, and to the requirements of ISO 22000 International Standard.
Documented procedures were established for the appropriate handling of potentially unsafe products and products traceability.
A documented procedure was established for corrections and corrective actions.
Records related to the results of the internal and external audits were established, so analysis was carried out to confirm that the overall performance of the system meet the planned arrangements and the food safety management system requirements.
All parameters concerning construction and lay-out of the casings factory building and associated utilities was appropriate except for, environmentally polluted areas were near the building and the plant were bordered by grounds that were not under the plant control. Also, the building was not designed to prevent the entrance and harboring of pests, insects, birds and environment contaminants. Additionally, plant’s litter and waste, cutting weeds or grass were found to be within the immediate vicinity of the plant building.
The layout of natural casings factory permitted good hygiene practices as the structures was soundly built of durable materials and easy to clean and disinfected.
Natural casings factory had separations of operations by location and partition.
The thawing procedure was safe and not adding any contamination.
Full or partial product recall was found and the responsibility of recall had been defined.
The organization was controlling or treating waste and the system were monitored for effectiveness, periodically.
All personnel had regulations to change outer clothing and wash and sanitize tools and hands prior to entering finished areas.
A written cleaning program including method and frequency of cleaning were specified.
The organization had a documented pest control plan/system.
Employees and workers wear the correct, clean, protective clothing.
The plant had supervisory personnel’s in different department for identifying sanitation failures and other compliances.
The employees had undergone periodic health examination and had valid health certificates.
Casings industry consists of 15 process steps. These included; receiving of raw materials, storage (frozen), thawing (refrigerator), pulling (fat removal), cleaning, salting, packaging, receiving cleaned casings, storage, rinsing and desalting, selection / grading / classification, salting or curing, packaging, storage, and dispatch.
According to ISO 22000 work sheet to determine the prerequisite programs, all casings processing steps had adequate technical infrastructure and adequate preventative maintenance program. All steps were feasible to evaluate and were not contributing to the control of food safety hazards. However, steps as thawing, cleaning, packaging, receiving of cleaned casings, rinsing/desalting, and selecting/gathering/classification were considered to affect the effectiveness of any following processing steps. Hence, these steps were concluded to be prerequisite program.
HACCP team was multi-disciplinary and consisted of: production manager, supply manager, Microbiological consultant, exploitation manager, maintenance manager and Consultant.
A complete description of the natural casings and identified the intended use was proceeded, notably by identifying the instructions concerning safe use.
Flow diagram concerning natural casings processing from the reception of the raw material until expedition of the finished products was established according to ISO 22000.
Hazard analysis was conducted stage by stage from the reception of raw material until expedition of the finished products.
A percentage of 7.5% of the examined received natural casings was found to contain foreign bodies while, 2.5% of final natural casings was contain foreign bodies as flies.
Water used in the production process of natural casings was analyzed chemically and all the analytical values were complied with law no. 458 for year 2007.
Depending on the hazard analysis of natural casings, natural casings are most affected by microbiological hazards as Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacteriaceae and sulphite reducing clostridia.
Salting and curing were considered the only critical control point by ISO 22000 implementation because this step is specially designed to eliminate or reduce the likely occurrence of hazard to an acceptable level.
The critical limits for salting process were the presence of visible salt crystals on casings after validated curing period (30 days), and the brine which was used for salting should be a solution with a high salt content (expressed in oBaumé), but not necessarily saturated.
Planned observations and measurements as monitoring procedures were conducted which included; visible salt crystals homogenously spread over the intestine, this was tested by visual inspection for each container and salt content was measured by determining the water activity level by using Salometer, twice/daily and this was done by qualified operator.
Specific corrective actions for salting process were established which included; re-inspect casings from the same lot, repeat salting and curing, determine cause of non-compliance and correct procedure and storing of casings for 30days.
Accurate records were established for the HACCP system among which; validation records, daily monitoring records, corrective action reports, analytical test reports, internal audit reports, extrinsic audit reports, customer complaints and HACCP review records.
Verification in order to check if the HACCP plan is working as expected was established which included; random visual inspection of products at predetermined frequency, check salt concentration used, microbiological testing of product, environmental samples, review results of internal and external audit and HACCP plan review.
Implementation of ISO 22000 in a natural casings factory decreased the microbiological contamination of the final product as a result of using prerequisite programs and HACCP system.
The critical control points determined for ISO 22000 was fewer than critical control points determined by HACCP system.
It is recommended to,
ISO 22000:2005 should be applicable to all organizations, regardless of size, which are involved in any aspect of the food chain under governmental supervision to ensure safe products which competing national and international markets.
Governmental authorities should provide extensive regulatory oversight to ensure the safety of our food supply.
Proper training program for governmental inspectors about the requirements of the ISO 22000:2005.