Area of Concern
Sterilex was contacted by a global manufacturer of bread and baked goods with concerns about their environmental surfaces—particularly drains and floors. The plant had high coliform and Listeria results in some of these areas.
Issue
High total coliform and intermittent Listeria positives on floors and in drains, potentially risking cross-contamination to food contact surfaces or product.
Background
The source of the problem was suspected to be a lack of biofilm control on environmental surfaces in the facility. Sterilex was brought in to recommend an SSOP for biofilm control and resistant organism control.
Recommendations
Sterilex recommended the addition of their comprehensive Drain Sanitation Protocol, which is powered by Sterilex’s patented EPA-registered PerQuat® technology to help kill hard-to-reach organisms and remove biofilm.
Results
Microbial Testing
A large drop was observed in the coliform results in the three areas tested.
Conclusions
As observed in this trial, the treatment of drains and floor tools with Sterilex PerQuat technology resulted in a large reduction in coliforms. Coliforms like E. coli are protected and housed in biofilm colonies, and Sterilex’s PerQuat solutions were developed to target this biofilm reservoir of bacteria. This case study suggests that Sterilex PerQuat technology is effective at penetrating and removing biofilm in hard-to-reach areas, which enables kill of biofilm pathogens as well.
Similar results may be observed in any plant with drains by following a similar protocol.
