Cereals & Grains Association
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Processing and its key role in assuring safety
A. BIANCHINI (1). (1) University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, U.S.A.

While developing a new product attention must be devoted to the processing and how it will affect the quality and safety of the product. The process of choice must ensure the safety of the product, while delivering the desired quality attributes. Besides the technology applied, the whole processing environment where the product is made must be conducive to quality and safety, and that is true for products under development, as well as products already under production. Because pathogens and mycotoxins would be the two main concerns regarding safety of cereal based products, this presentation will focus on the role of processing to assure safety regarding these two hazards. This presentation will give a brief overview about these hazards and discuss in more details some control measures to address them. In general, control measures start with preventing pathogens and mycotoxins from coming into the production environment through the sourcing of high quality ingredients. Another important measure is the prevention of bacterial establishment or toxin production within the premises. During processing, some steps can be used to reduce contamination by pathogens; however, these may be less effective against mycotoxins because of their stability. For pathogens another very important area that will be discussed is the prevention of cross and post-processing contamination. And finally, the use of an environmental monitoring program (EMP) will be discussed to evaluate the efficacy of any measures adopted from a broad perspective.

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