A Simplified and Affordable Trend Analysis to Improve Microbiological Quality of Ready-to-Eat Food Products

摘要

Ready-to-eat" is defined as the status of the food being ready for immediate consumption. For some ready-to-eat foods, legal microbiological criteria exist, and in addition different national guidelines are available to complement legally enforceablestandards. Control charts are used to statistically study results of a manufacturing process over a period of time with the aim to demonstrate if the process is under control. The current research examined the microbiological quality of 177 ready-to-eatfood samples in the catering cooperative group "La Cascina, " in Latium, Italy, during a period of one year (2014-2015). Contamination trends were reported as individual control charts that were used to identify out-of-control data, address appropriate corrective actions, and finally promote quality improvements by setting customized dynamic control limits. Meals were individually analyzed using the alternative Micro Biological Survey method; in parallel with the conventional plating method; in order topropose an efficient; simplified; and suitable approach that could be useful for small industries to monitor constantly food quality.