Abstract

THE DISINFECTION IMPORTANCE FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF PRODUCTION SAFETY IN A FOOD PROCESSING PLANT

Veszelits Lakti?ová K., Vargová M. and Zigo F.*

ABSTRACT

Hygiene and sanitation in the food industry have a great influence on the quality of food products and their durability. This is primarily about maintaining hygiene and cleanliness of production premises, hygiene of persons and clothing, work tools, and warehouses. Compliance with the general principles of hygiene is one of the basic requirements, valid for every worker in the food industry, regardless of whether he works in food production, in food distribution or in catering facilities. By non-compliance with hygiene principles, food can be contaminated, thus becoming a way of infectious disease transmission, or it can be degraded by the decaying activity of microorganisms. The current demands for the production of high-quality and safe food are at the forefront of the interest of experts, but also of the general consumer public in developed countries, with the final impact on the economy of agricultural production in primary production, but also in the processing company. According to the valid legislation in the Slovak Republic, food manufacturers are obliged to take steps that are ultimately intended to prevent the occurrence of risks from the consumption of food items. As a result, the entire food production is carried out based on the requirements of good production practice and the introduction of the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) system. In these systems, the issue of implementing sanitation is an integral part of the production process, as a basic assumption for hygiene and the success of the entire system. In the work, we evaluated the hygiene of selected surfaces, work areas and technological equipment in the monitored sections of plant-based beverages production using the microbiological method before the start of production, during production and after disinfection. From the obtained results, taken in the monitored food processing plant, we can conclude that the hygiene of the individual evaluated surfaces was at a sufficient level. From the point of view of the monitored technological equipment hygiene used in operation, we assess all the surfaces of this equipment as sufficiently disinfected, except for storage tank No. 1, where we detected increased values of coliform bacteria during production with a number of 5 CFU (Colony forming units), but after disinfection they decreased to 2 CFU and this state did not change until the start of production.

Keywords: food industry, microbiological swabs, disinfection, hygiene.