Quality is a difficult concept to measure. It is taken as a given and therefore not particularly valued or rewarded. It is only when it fails that it suddenly becomes the focus of attention.
A contamination incident may result in a product being temporarily absent from supermarket shelves for a few days at one end of the scale, to a major shortage of life-sustaining medicines at the other, but damage will inevitably be caused to the brand and to the manufacturer’s reputation.
There is a basic question of when contamination is an issue requiring immediate action such as halting the line or recalling products, or whether remedial action can be taken that will allow supplies to continue uninterrupted.
The complexity of the issue causes considerable confusion, even among microbiologists. When monitoring detects a problem, the anomaly may well have disappeared again, and by the time a sample has been cultured the product may already be on the shelves.
Much is still not known about microbes and their behaviour, and particularly the mechanisms by which they build up immunity to cleaning systems, disinfectants and antibiotics. But in the absence of definitive knowledge, awareness is key.
The forthcoming revision of ISO 14698 can only be good news when it comes to employing environmental monitoring techniques to prevent serious incidents. But the process is in its earliest stages and in the meantime much can be done to change features on a production line where contamination could potentially originate, such as deadlegs, and optimising sanitisation systems.
Prevention is always better than cure.
