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| Fairbank Farms and American Fresh Foods are
committed to continuously supply the safest,
highest quality ground beef products to our
customers. We have established a food safety
objective designed to detect very low levels of
E. coli O157:h7 in the production system and
restrict affected product from entering
commerce. This food safety objective protects
Fairbank Farms, American Fresh Foods and our
customer’s valuable reputation. |
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| Our food safety program starts with a
rigorous vendor certification process. Each
vendor must have implemented humane animal
handling practices, established Good
Manufacturing Practices (GMP’s) and they have
implemented and verified the use of one or more
microbiological intervention strategies (hot
water wash, steam vacuum, steam pasteurization,
acid wash application). |
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| As an intervention verification step, each
approved vendor must complete a raw material
screening process utilizing the “Best Practices”
as determined by the Beef Industry Food Safety
Council selecting 60 meat surface samples and
utilizing PCR/DNA testing for each 10,000 pounds
of fresh raw materials. Only product that has
been tested and found negative for the presence
of E. coli O157:H7 will be eligible for use at
Fairbank Farms and American Fresh Foods. |
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| Upon arrival at our grinding facility, each
pallet of raw material is checked to ensure that
proper identification and documentation have
been completed. The raw materials are briefly
stored in our temperature controlled warehouse
facility before use. Each pallet of product is
traced from its original vendor (source)
utilizing a computer bar coding system whereby
each finished case is labeled with the
production date, lot identification and unique
serial number. |
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| After grinding and blending for fat and
temperature control, we package the product and
begin the final verification testing step to
ensure production of the safest product for our
customers. We take serial samples from each
operating packaging line every 20 minutes to
adequately represent the finished products.
These finished product samples are enriched and
tested for the presence or absence of E. coli
O157:H7. All finished goods are held in our
control, “Test and Hold”, until the product has
been found negative and released. |
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| Fairbank Farms and American Fresh Foods
utilize an industry leading “Test and Hold” food
safety program. Our food safety objective is to
mitigate consumer risks associated with the
presence of E. coli O157:H7. Our “Test and Hold”
program utilizes statistically significant
serial sampling of our finished ground beef
products. Following this sampling program, we
utilize PCR/DNA genetic testing seeking to
identify a specific DNA strand unique to E. coli
O157:H7. |
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| The origin of the serial sampling protocol
combined with PCR/DNA testing was the result of
the collaborative work of our partner business,
American Foodservice and Jack-In-The-Box
following their 1993 E. coli outbreak. |
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| Each of our facilities is equipped with a
food safety laboratory to provide timely testing
and release of finished product from our “Test
and Hold” program. Our laboratories are staffed
by professionally trained microbiologists and
technicians who undergo quarterly proficiency
testing by the American Proficiency Institute
(API) and the American Organization of
Analytical Chemists (AOAC). |
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