Milk and Dairy Sampling: Technologies to Reduce Risk and Increase Efficiency

Attendees of this webinar will learn how a representative sampling plan improves assessment of the characteristics of the entire process stream to avoid food hazards and ensure efficiency of the entire milk and dairy process.

In 2016, food recalls surged 22% to 764, with many tied to the dairy industry. Contaminated dairy products can be linked to consumer illness, with the potential to permanently damage a dairy’s brand. How can milk and milk ingredient processors turn the tide, while complying with new and expanding regulations? Automatic sampling can help ensure that milk, cheese, yogurt and ice cream processors not only comply with the latest regulations, but also avoid harmful and expensive recalls that can lead to brand damage – or worse.

The 2016 implementation of the Hazard Analysis and Risk-based Preventive Control (HARPC) provisions under Section 103 of the U.S. FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) placed more responsibility on the food industry to identify potential food safety risks. A well-developed food quality and safety program includes risk-based evaluation, control procedures, corrective actions and documentation. It also involves food testing using analytical techniques to measure quality and contamination threats down to the parts-per-trillion. Yet, milk and dairy testing often start with an unreliable sample.

Manual sampling techniques such as hand scoop and spigot sampling are common sampling methods with milk and dairy producers and processors. These convenient and low-cost direct methods are widely accepted as a standard operating procedure. Final product sampling is also regarded as being easy and reliable – the product is a random representation of the lot and is already contained and ready for the lab.

However, manual sampling simply isn’t enough to keep up with FSMA regulation and doesn’t offer a complete look at the efficiency of your overall process. Automatic sampling ensures representative dairy samples and makes it easier to document the sampling process. It also simplifies the auditing of systems and processes to complete the custody transfer chain. Automatic sampling can help dairy producers comply with federal, state and local regulations and guidelines, while ensuring food safety and potentially reducing the risk of food recalls.

How Representative Sampling Improves Food Safety Compliance

1. Reliability – Representative automatic sampling is reliable, from validation of incoming ingredients to quality testing at each key processing stage. It is the only way to ensure confidence in testing results.
2. Accuracy – For the most dependable analysis and traceability, automatic representative sampling offers a repeatable method providing a more accurate, efficient way to sample versus manual scoop or pull methods that introduce bias.
3. Ingredient verification – In-process ingredient blending systems could be enhanced by automatic sampling to verify that ingredients are being blended at appropriate ratios.
4. Product traceability– Tracking and verifying ingredients from farm to final products throughout the supply chain requires a statistically sound sampling plan.

Speaker

Rich Gaffney, Director of Sales, Sentry Equipment

With 20-plus years of experience in the sampling industry, Rich Gaffney has worked with many client companies to help them address their sampling, monitoring and measurement needs. His career has been focused on sales and application engineering, and he passionately believes that taking the time to fully understand customers’ goals is the key to successful relationships. He believes in making every customer a commitment, and communication drives his success.

Gaffney says that being an employee-owner makes him invested in the long-term growth and success of the company, with accountability and ownership that goes beyond a paycheck. “Employee engagement is special to Sentry,” he says. “We’re working with and for the customer with an all-in attitude to get the job done. Our entire organization is ready, willing and able to serve our customers.”

 

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