Hello!
I am working on a project for my facility in regards to having part of the building leased out. Upstairs (above production) we have a large empty space that we will be leasing out for 6 people to work. The current plan is to keep the foot traffic outside of production, so they will not directly be passing through the production space. In the break room, we have a transition area with a foot scrubber/sprayer and automatic handwashing. The new residents are required to use the foot scrubber/sprayer and handwashing machine, and instead of entering production will take the stairs up to the space they will be using. At no point will they enter our production area.
The task I have been assigned is to create a sampling plan to track and monitor their activity to justify or rationalize that their presence in the building will not have any effect on the (microbial) safety of our facility. How necessary is it to do APC/Coliform/Salmonella/Listeria or could I simply swab for Salmonella/Listeria. My plan is to section off the foot traffic to 5 foot sections and do a swab in each section, creating a "path" to monitor the APC values. To have cost savings, I will then composite 5 sections at a time and do Listeria detection (I don't anticipate any Listeria, but I cannot ignore it either).
My budget is 1,200 and the length of this study is not determined. What would an auditor need to see to make sure we have a justified answer. 2x per week for 4 weeks. 3x per week for 3 months? Thank you for your expertise, any literature that you could point me towards would be much appreciated.