35684 - Practice on Inspection, Control and Certification of Milk and Dairy Products

Learning outcomes

Course framework

Veterinarians are called to carry out their professional activities in the field of milk processing in a context that is well defined: the Italian processing industry is characterized by two main types of productive activities that represent roughly 50% each. The first type of dairy productions are designated to protected designation of origin (PDO) productions or traditional and artisanal products; theese type of manufacture are associated to artisanal cheese factories and processes; the second type of production is typically characterized by high industrial mechanization and automation. At European level the Italian background reflects the Mediterranean Countries whereas the Northern European productions are more frequently industrial type.

With regard to food safety the European regulations identify two distinct roles with different tasks in which veterinarians may apply: the food business operator (FBO) which has the task of put in place, implement and maintain a permanent procedure or procedures based on the HACCP principles in order to ensure the food safety, and the Health Authority which has the task of ensure that FBOs correctly apply the legislation in force in order to ensure food safety and to protect public health and consumers.

Main formative objectives

The main objectives are to introduce the students to the background of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system and its importance as a food safety management system in identifying and controlling food safety hazards.

Students should learn, in one hand, the necessary knowledge of the different types of milk processing industries and, in the other hand, should have the necessary abilities to identify hazards present at the level of dairy manufacturing and to consider the appropriate control measures by operating appropriate food safety programs and procedures based on the HACCP principles; Students should be able to establish corrective actions when the production system is not under control and to adopt a decision and the following measures that must be applied.

The aim of this training is therefore to provide students with the tools and skills that allow them to deal with:

• Knowledge of the two main types of dairy production (artisanal and industrial);

• Ability to establish/verify an HACCP plan in a dairy plant processing several dairy products;

• Ability to analyze and evaluate a hygienic/safety problem in terms of identifying the causes, resolution of the issue, decision on the product;

• Ability to correctly identify the analytical methods that could be used in the decision making and useful to assess the safety of dairy products.

Course contents

The training will be carried out in 4 sessions per shift: sessions will be approximately one per week for each round, even though more than one session could be provided when holidays (Christmas and Easter) are.

First session (approximately 5 hours)

The aims of the first session are that students learned the manufacturing of the most typical dairy products and that become able to evaluate the implementation of a HACCP plan in a dairy plant; the main milk processes (pasteurization, acidification, curd production, spinning, yogurt and ricotta cheese production) should be evaluated and, during production, students will perform an effective monitoring of the processing in order to evaluate if process is under control; in addition several samplings for microbiological analysis (or other testing) will be performed and used to verify the HACCP efficacy. The activities will be carried out in the didactic dairy plant of the Faculty( http://www.scienzemedicheveterinarie.unibo.it/it/dipartimento/Scienzaelatte/caseificio/index.html); an artisanal fresh dairy producion was selected as the most appropriate process because several potential hazards associated with each production step could be identified, and consequently, it represent an important moment for discussion with the supervision of the teacher about the most important food safety issues. At the end of the session, research material will be left to students for the following sessions.

Second session (approximately 4 hours)

Work project: development of a HACCP plan.

The main objective is to provide that students should be able ro develop a HACCP system. Students will be divided into 4 groups, of about 5 students each; each group should select a dairy product observed during the previous session and should prepare a theoretical HACCP plan for the considered product. Three hours exercise on the basis of the materials provided and under the guidance of both teacher and tutor will be done; at the end of the exercise each group will then present a report of about 15 minutes in which students must describe the product and the process, list all potential hazards identified, consider measures to control the identified hazards, determine the critical control points (CCP), establish critical limits and a monitoring systems for each CCP. Physical and chemical measurements as well microbiological testing for the product control should be requested.

This activity should introduce a discussion between all working groups and the teacher in order to focus both critical and worthy aspects. At the end of the lesson, a complete HACCP plan will be left to students in order to provide the comparison of their work with the validated plan; research material for the following session will be left to students.

Third session (approximately 3 hours)

Problem Solving

The objective is to familiarize the students with the tools useful in the analysis and assessment of a food hygiene/safety problem and to provide students to be able to take decisions on the fate of the food in terms of withdrawal or recall of the product. Students will be divided into 4 groups, of about 5 students each; each group should select an assigned hygiene/safety issue that really happened in the observed dairy plant. Students should identify all the potential problem causes, and, on basis of the monitoring records provided by the dairy factory, students should assess which causes could be excluded, which analytical tests are needed to discover the most probable cause,and, on the basis of these observations, take the adequate decisions to reinstate the production system under control and to establish if  the withdrawal and/or recall product procedures are necessary. At the end of the exercise,  each group will then present a report of about 15 minutes explaining and disussing the issue. At the end of the session the teacher will provide the students with the authentic records and documentation of the presented cases showing how the presented cases were solved.

Fourth Session (approximately 4 hours)

Industrial plant visit: the activity provides students to examine the different dairy plants types.

A visit to a high automation plant processing milk, cheeses, cream  and whey cheeses will be performed. Usually industrial plants are characterized by automated systems but hygiene and safety issues are very similar to artisanal plants even if the food safety approach could resulted in one hand more complicated by the automation technology and the very high volumes processed, in the other hand simplified by the used technology and the operators' competence; the teacher will explain the different critical aspects and issues of the two different types of plants.

Readings/Bibliography

Texts available in the library:

- Igiene e tecnologie degli alimenti di origine animale. Le Point Vétérinaire Italie srl . Igiene e tecnologie del latte, del colostro e dei prodotti derivati. Pag. 203 -- 257 ;

- HACCP and ISO 22000: Application to food of animal origin. Wiley Blackwell. Dairy Foods. Pag 91-173.

- Microorganism in food 6: microbial ecology of food commodities. ICMSF. Milk and Dairy Products. Pag. 643 - 715.

- The microbiology of safe food. Blackwell. Pag. 142-177.

- Residui di farmaci e contaminanti ambientali nelle produzioni animali. EdiSES. Cap. 4, 7, 21, 22, 23 e 24.

other documents:

- The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RAFFS) Annual Report

- WHO/FAO Food hygiene basic text. Fourth edition.

- CAC/RCP 57/2004 Code of Hygienic Practices for mMilk and Dairy Products.

- Guida all'uso dell'HACCP. Chiriotti editore.

 

Teaching methods

team work, didactic visits

Assessment methods

The evaluation wil be performed within the ISPEZIONE, CONTROLLO E CERTIFICAZIONE DEGLI ALIMENTI course by evaluation of the results of the work project and of the case study.

Teaching tools

1. description of the training course;
2. power point on HACCP;
3. Power point on milk and dairy product production technology;
4. Experimental faculty  cheese factory( http://www.scienzemedicheveterinarie.unibo.it/it/dipartimento/Scienzaelatte/caseificio/index.html);
5. production flow chart of the experimental cheese factory;
6. European regulation (Reg. EU 178/02, 852/2004, 853/2004; 2073/2005; 1881/2006; 37/2010; 470/2009).
7. Case study practice
8. Problem solving practice
9. Technical and scientific documents to answer problem solving practice.

Documents are available in the teacher web site.

Office hours

See the website of Andrea Serraino

See the website of Roberto Rosmini