Food product recalls triggered as a result of pathogen contamination continue to represent a major risk to the food industry. For decades, food companies have worked to refine the science of pathogen control and produce a safer product. While progress has most assuredly been made, pathogens living for long periods in the food processing environment remain exceedingly illusive and difficult to eliminate. Notably, the data we have collected over the past six years demonstrates that the vast majority of recalls for the suspected presence of pathogens involve large amounts of products manufactured over multiple days, weeks, months, and, in some cases, even years.

Long gone, it would appear, are the days when a contamination event was limited to a single shift (or single day) of production. This recall profile, once representative of most recalls, has begun to fade away. In turn, we see a new profile taking its place. Today, the new and, frankly, normal recall profile, involves large amounts of product, being produced over large amounts of time, which is intermittently contaminated in small amounts by a single pathogen strain. What this tells us is that pathogens in the environment are, in fact, more persistent, and more difficult to eliminate, than once thought.

While I eluded to the phenomenon in a blog a number of months back, I want to use this opportunity to talk about concrete numbers. If you can better understand the types and numbers of recalls falling into this new profile, you should be better armed to obtain the tools and resources needed from company leadership to eliminate persistent strains from the food processing environment.

So far in 2022, there have now been a total of 62 separate recalls of food products for the suspected presence of pathogens. These recalls involved a wide-range of food products, which included meats, salads, fruits, mushrooms, ice cream, cheeses, peanut butter, candy, infant formula, and many others. Of the total number of recalls for the suspected presence of pathogens, 46 recalls involved food products manufactured over multiple days, weeks, and months of production. Interestingly, 17 of the 21 recalls in 2022 for Listeria monocytogenes (a total of 81 percent) fell into this category. In turn, 28 of the 33 recalls in 2022 for Salmonella (a total of 85 percent) involved food products becoming contaminated over long periods of time. Notably, of the 4 recalls for various types of E. coli, only one fell into this category (representing a mere 25 percent). This tells us that Listeria and Salmonella contamination in food processing environments may be much more persistent (versus transient) than we once thought.

In 2021, a total of 130 recalls were triggered because of the presence of harmful pathogens. Notably, approximately seventy (70) percent of the recalls announced for the presence of pathogens involved products manufactured over multiple days, weeks, or months of production (Listeria = 72 percent, Salmonella = 69 percent, and E. coli = 60 percent). This demonstrates that, if these pathogens are allowed to persist in the food processing environment, it can and does significantly increase the likelihood that any food products manufactured within that environment will also, at some point, become contaminated.

So, as you continue to march through 2022, redouble your efforts to identify and eliminate any potentially persistent strains of Listeria or Salmonella from your food processing environments. And, be sure to use the data highlighted above to help convince company leadership, where needed, that policing and overpowering persistence is, in fact, the whole point.

Persistence is the whole point

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