Microbiological air control of food industry enterprises: Relevance, regulatory documents and research methods

A review of regulatory documents on air control was carried out; approaches to air sampling at food industry enterprises and methods of air disinfection were considered. It has been established that air is one of the important aspects in ensuring the quality and safety of food products. Air is a transport medium for pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms. The concentration of microorganisms and the area of their distribution in the air of industrial premises are influenced by the technological features of the products being manufactured and the design of the enterprise. The transfer of microorganisms at food industry enterprises occurs due to bioaerosols that are formed during high-pressure washing. The use of air filters allows reducing the level of microorganisms in the indoor air. Microbial air monitoring should be carried out during the technological process at critical control points (CCP). To assess air, it is advisable to select those microorganisms that cause spoilage of manufactured products or affected their safety. Passive and active air sampling methods have certain limitations. There are various methods of air disinfection, the main ones being fogging, ozonation and UV irradiation. The choice of the method should be made based on the characteristics of a particular enterprise. In Russian regulatory documents, microbiological indicators when assessing air at food industry enterprises are limited to total microbial count, yeast and mold count, while in foreign practice, the choice of indicators is based on those microorganisms that caused spoilage of finished products released from a particular enterprise. It is necessary to develop modern integrated approaches to ensure air control at food industry enterprises and establish regulatory documents on microbiological indicators and their permissible levels.