monitoring of food quality and process cleanliness should be based on
microbial reference methods. Thismeansthat the thresholdvaluesfor detected
amountsof contaminants must be very low(Maukonenet al., 2003).The
following topicsare of interest: (1) exploringpathogenphysiology/ecology with
emphasis on the understandingof survivalof and resistancetowards processing
and in pathogen±host interactions; (2) exploring virulence traits with the
emphasis on understanding pathogenicity and infectivity; (3) identifying
specificmicrobial characteristics to assistin the identification of pathogenic
microbes in the foodenvironment under investigation; and (4) assistancein risk
assessment carriedout by governmentsand foodsafety management in industry
(Vaughan, 2004).
3.6 Sourcesof furtherinformation and advice
The foodand drink industry shouldoffera widerangeof safe,wholesomeand
nutritious foodand drink productsto 450 million consumers in an enlarged
Europe. At a timewhen quality is beingsubjected to evaluation by the market
and is not addressedthrough regulatoryprescriptions,the production of safe
foodproductsis being subjected to great stress. Any foodsafetyobligationmust
be respectedby all the linksin the foodchainincluding farmers and animalfeed
producers. Regulation 178/2002confirmsthe newapproachto foodsafety±
fromthe farmto the fork± whichimpliesclosecooperation between all those
involvedin the foodchain.The InternationalFoodStandard, the British Retail
Consortium Standard, the DanishStandard, the DutchStandardand the soonto
be adopted ISO 22000are all toolsfor assessingmanufacturersin producing safe
foodin a secureenvironmentwith a documentedand effective qualitymanage-
ment(Wirtanen& Raaska, 2005).The choiceof variousstandards is influenced
by manyfactors,suchas availabilityof advisers and retailers (Zagorc,2004).
Furthermore, the European Hygienic Engineering and Design Group
(EHEDG)is currentlyproducing a guidelineon hygienicsystemsintegration.
Thiscoming EHEDG guidelinehas the task of linkingand supporting current
guidelines on hygienic designregardingspecificequipment and hygienic tests.It
can be viewedas bothvertical and horizonalguidelines. The mostfundamental
EHEDG guidelines in hygienic integration are: Document 8 Hygienic equipment design criteria',Document10Hygienicdesignof closedequipment
for the processing of liquidfood', Document 13 Hygienicdesignof equipment for openprocessing', Document22General hygienicdesigncriteriafor the safe
processing of dry particulate materials' and Document 26 `Hygienic engineering
of plants for the processingof dry particulatematerials'.Neitherthe EN1672-2
nor the HACCP standardsare replacedby this guideline(Steenstrupet al.,
2004).
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