In my last blog, I wrote about the importance of remaining persistent about microbial persistence. Microorganisms in the food processing environment can wreak havoc on our food safety systems and the ultimate safety of our finished products. And, if we are not diligent in hunting them down and eliminating them from the processing environment completely, they will continue to find ways to get into our food.

A good first step in the battle against persistent pathogens is to shift the way we, as food safety professionals and company leadership, think and talk. Whenever we do find pathogens in the environment or in a finished product, we have historically asked ourselves what was the “root case.” This, of course, is an essential question to both ask and answer. The problem, however, is that sometimes we are too narrow-minded when performing the obligatory assessment.

Traditionally, when a pathogen is found in a particular location, such as a drain, the legacy root cause analysis has focused more on “why” the pathogen is in the drain, as opposed to “how it got there.” In turn, the root cause analysis concludes, in most instances, that the positive finding occurred because the sanitation employees failed to adequately clean and sanitize the drain.

The corrective actions, which always follow, are then geared toward the finding. In most cases, the corrective actions will consist of: (1) retraining the employees; (2) recleaning the drain; (3) re-sanitizing the drain; (4) retesting until negative results are obtained; and (5) then resuming business as usual.

What is rarely being asked is, “How did the microorganism get into the drain?” Or, put differently, “Where the heck did it come from?” Although often overlooked, this is one of the most critical questions the food safety professional (and, frankly, the company leadership) should be asking. Instead, in many cases, food companies get complacent and simply “live” with their positive environmental findings. If this strategy persists, however, the contamination in the environment will continue to persist, multiply and spread.

So, what should food safety professionals and company leadership be asking instead? They should be asking “what was the root source” of the contamination. Or, as noted above, “Where did it come from?” If this is the real question that is being probed to develop appropriate corrective actions, then food companies will, for the first time in our history, be in a position to actually begin eliminating pathogens from the environment.

So, moving forward, please don’t talk to me about “root cause.” Instead, I want to hear about what you have done to find the “root source.” If we can embrace this alternative approach, we will have taken a massive step toward eradicating harmful pathogens from our food supply.

Don’t talk to me about “root cause”

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