Meat + Poultry - August 2007 - 26

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3M™ Petri¿lm™ Environmental Listeria Plates Allows Cheese
Manufacturer to Expand Monitoring Program
A Customer Testimonial
Sartori Foods in Plymouth, Wisconsin has more than
66 years of experience providing aged specialty cheeses,
cheese Àavor systems and custom solutions for foodservice
and industrial customers. In this interview, Tom Louko,
Quality Assurance Manager of the corporate safety
laboratory, discusses the bene¿ts of monitoring for Listeria
using 3M Petri¿lm Environmental Listeria (EL) Plates.
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Please describe your environmental
monitoring program.
We want to be aware of any microbial hazards so we can
address them ef¿ciently. Therefore, we use an aggressive
monitoring program. It's designed to detect Listeria
as well as other indicator organisms, such as E. coli
and Staphylococcus.
We use a zone approach in our monitoring program. The
¿rst zone is closest to the food manufacturing equipment.
The second is in the hallways through which ingredients
are brought to the manufacturing line. Our third zone,
which is farthest away, includes our warehouse areas and
locations in which people walk or trucks arrive. High
traf¿c areas are monitored weekly. We also vary our
testing patterns by adding different, miscellaneous sample
locations every week.
We have extensive experience testing in-house Listeria
using standard methods, as well as sending samples to a
commercial laboratory for evaluation. When we wanted
a new in-house method that would provide faster turn
around and was affordable, we chose Petri¿lm EL Plates.
The fact that it is an easier test due to the elimination of
an enrichment step was also a plus.

What were the top three reasons you selected
Petri¿lm EL Plates?
First, we wanted an ef¿cient, cost effective means for
monitoring pathogens such as Listeria. Petri¿lm EL
Plates are very cost effective compared to using standard
culture methods in-house. Second, we were familiar with
3M Petri¿lm Plate products since we use 3M Petri¿lm
E. coli/Coliform Count Plates and 3M Petri¿lm Aerobic
Count Plates. The protocols and interpretation methods
are similar so our technicians and microbiologists felt
comfortable making the transition to Petri¿lm EL Plates.
That signi¿cantly reduced our training time. Third,
we routinely process large volumes of samples so we
appreciated the relatively small space that Petri¿lm Plates
occupy versus traditional petri dishes.
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What bene¿ts have you found using
Petri¿lm EL Plates?
Petri¿lm EL Plates do not require an enrichment step.

Microbiology
3M Center, Bldg. 275-5W-05
St. Paul, MN 55144-1000
USA
800-328-6553
www.3m.com/microbiology

Please recycle. Printed in USA.
3M and Petriﬁlm are trademarks of 3M.
© 3M 2007. All rights reserved.
70-2009-9335-3 (67.15) DPI

3MTM PetriﬁlmTM
Environmental Listeria Plates.

7

Therefore, we're only working with small samples and
don't have to contend with large amounts of potential
pathogens associated with enrichment methods. That
reduces the possibility of cross contamination within our
laboratory and consequently within the manufacturing
facility. I think that's a huge bene¿t.

How has obtaining results, in 26 to 30 hours,
been bene¿cial?
Petri¿lm EL Plates allow us to react faster to potential
issues and protect ourselves and our customers. Large
quantities of food could be produced during the three
to ¿ve days we would be waiting for a standard test to
indicate whether there were Listeria concerns.
How have quantitative results, instead of typical
presence/absence test results, changed your
response procedures?
Determining the number of bacterial colonies helps us
focus on potential problem areas where counts may be
high, instead of areas where there are few, if any, counts.
This allows us to manage causes and effects better than
presence/absence results would. The quantitative results
also let us examine trends in our data.
What other bene¿ts have you received as a result
of converting to Petri¿lm EL Plates?
The time savings gained by using Petri¿lm EL Plate has
allowed the lab to be more ef¿cient and increase our testing
volume. Other laboratories within the company are now
sending their samples to us. Testing their samples in-house
with Petri¿lm Environmental Listeria Plates is de¿nitely
reducing our company's costs.
In addition, the cost savings enabled us to monitor more
sites. In turn, that improves the statistical validity of our
monitoring program and our con¿dence in the results.
I'm convinced that we do indeed have a better
understanding of what is going on in the manufacturing
environment from a Listeria monitoring standpoint.
With all the other food safety and quality issues to worry
about on a daily basis, it's nice to feel con¿dent about our
environmental monitoring program.
http://www.3m.com/microbiology
Meat + Poultry - August 2007

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