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Food Protection Trends
Abstracts - December 2006
Attachment of Listeria monocytogenes to an Austenitic
Stainless Steel with Three
Different Types of Surface Finish
Public Health Inspector Bias
and Judgment during Inspections
of Food Service Premises
Attachment of Listeria monocytogenes to an Austenitic
Stainless Steel with Three
Different Types of Surface Finish
Nofrijon I. Sofyan-1,3 Tam L. Mai-2 Donald E. Conner-2* Jeffrey W. Fergus-1 and William F. Gale-1
1-Materials Research and Education Center
2-Department of Poultry Science, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849,
USA
3-ISI Surakarta, Surakarta 57126 Indonesia
SUMMARY
The attachment of Listeria monocytogenes to an austenitic stainless
steel 304 with three different types of surface finish, i.e., No. 2B (mill),
No. 4 (satin), and No. 8 (mirror), has been investigated. The study was
based on wettability phenomena, in which the combined properties
of a surface, a liquid, and a vapor phase were assumed to play an
important role in the attachment of bacteria. A previous study on
the effect of accelerated corrosion on bacterial attachment of the
same material indeed had shown that wettability plays a key role. In
contrast, in the present study the role of wetting phenomena was not
clear, indicating that other factors need to be considered. One finding
that needs to be explained further is that when the contact angle of
the liquid on a surface increased to a certain degree, detachment of
bacteria on that surface became more difficult. The results showed
that polishing a surface to a certain smoothness may give rise to
more adhesion of bacteria. This study also verified that No. 2B (mill)
finish is a better choice than the other two for food contact surfaces
in limiting the initial attachment of L. monocytogenes.
Public Health Inspector Bias
and Judgment during Inspections
of Food Service Premises
Paul Medeiros-1 and Anne Wilcock-2
1-Department of Food Science, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1
2-Department
of Marketing and Consumer Studies, University of Guelph, 50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1
SUMMARY
Public health inspectors make numerous judgments and decisions
during their inspections of food premises. Many of these judgments
and decisions are subjective and can be influenced by bias. Nine public
health inspectors were interviewed to explore the existence and
potential impact of bias in their judgment and decision-making process
during inspections of food premises. Several biases that have been
identified in prior research and demonstrated to have an impact on
professional judgment outside the arena of health inspection were
used as a baseline. The findings revealed that certain types of biases
were influencing the decision-making processes of public health
inspectors and that bias could indeed affect the results of inspections.
Recommendations to reduce the impact of bias include training,
calibration and area rotation.
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