American Fresh Foods
is committed to continuously supply the
safest, highest quality ground beef
products to our customers. We have
established a food safety objective
designed to detect very low levels of E.
coli O157:H7 in the production system
and restrict affected product from
entering commerce. This food safety
objective protects American Fresh Foods
and our customer’s valuable reputation.
Our food safety program starts with a
rigorous vendor certification process.
Each vendor must have implemented humane
animal handling practices, established
Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP’s) and
they have implemented and verified the
use of one or more microbiological
intervention strategies (hot water wash,
steam vacuum, steam pasteurization, acid
wash application).
As an intervention verification step,
each approved vendor must complete a raw
material screening process utilizing the
“Best Practices” as determined by the
Beef Industry Food Safety Council
selecting 60 meat surface samples and
utilizing PCR/DNA testing for each
10,000 pounds of fresh raw materials.
Only product that has been tested and
found negative for the presence of E.
coli O157:H7 will be eligible for use at
American Fresh Foods.
Upon arrival at our grinding facility,
each pallet of raw material is checked
to ensure that proper identification and
documentation have been completed. The
raw materials are briefly stored in our
temperature controlled warehouse
facility before use. Each pallet of
product is traced from its original
vendor (source) utilizing a computer bar
coding system whereby each unit is
labeled with the production date, lot
identification and unique serial number.
After grinding and blending for fat and
temperature control, we package the
product and begin the final verification
testing step to ensure production of the
safest product for our customers. We
take serial samples from each operating
packaging line every 20 minutes to
adequately represent the finished
products. These finished product samples
are enriched and tested for the presence
or absence of E. coli O157:H7. All
finished goods are held in our control,
“Test and Hold”, until the product has
been found negative and released.
American Fresh Foods utilizes an
industry leading “Test and Hold” food
safety program. Our food safety
objective is to mitigate consumer risks
associated with the presence of E. coli
O157:H7. Our “Test and Hold” program
utilizes a USDA recognized robust serial
sampling of our finished ground beef
products. After sampling, we utilize PCR/DNA
genetic testing to identify a specific
DNA strand unique to E. coli O157:H7.
The origin of the serial sampling
protocol combined with PCR/DNA testing
was the result of the collaborative work
of our partner business, Texas American
Food Service and Jack-In-The-Box
following their 1993 E. coli outbreak.
Each of our facilities is equipped with
a food safety laboratory to provide
timely testing and release of finished
product from our “Test and Hold”
program. Our laboratories are staffed by
professionally trained microbiologists
and technicians who undergo quarterly
proficiency testing by the American
Proficiency Institute (API) and the
American Organization of Analytical
Chemists (AOAC).
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