Can someone point me in the right direction for finding clear, defined rules on testing for listeria and retesting?
I have searched the FDA site and can't find that I need.
My co-worker and I have proposed a slight modification on how we perform our salmonella and listeria testing. Our proposed change would save the company a LOT of money. BUT, if did have a positive listeria, it would result in a higher loss than our previous method, but still the savings would still be huge.
Our senior managers like our initial change, but not the higher loss of product, which is understandable. BUT, they want us to change how we would retest.
Currently, we pull 3 samples from every 36 cases for a test. (2 per pallet). Our change would be to pull 6 samples from 72 cases (1 per pallet)
So if we tested positive, we would retest the 72 cases and then dispose of 72 cases if the retest was positive.
Senior managers are ok with the first test of 72, but want any retest to be broken down to every 24 cases (or ever 12), so if ONE set of 24 was positive, only 24 (or 12) cases would be disposed of.
Co-worker and I do NOT agree with this but can't explain it in a way to make SM understand (language barrier partly).
I need something I can refer them to so they can see for themselves.
This being said, we've only had 1 incident of listeria in the 3 years my co-worker has been here (I've only been here 1 1/2 years)