I’ll be honest with you: distinguishing between cross-contact and cross-contamination used to throw me off. Many people in the food allergy community (my past-self included) often mistakenly use the terms interchangeably. Show The confusion is so widespread that even food manufacturers and allergists mix up the two. In fairness, cross-contact is a new(ish) term, so some have gotten into the habit of labeling everything involving inadvertent food exposure as cross-contamination. “I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t always use the terms correctly,” says allergist Dr. Jordan Scott. “Many of us were trained to use cross-contamination to refer to allergens inadvertently getting into another food source.” To help clear up some of the confusion, we’re breaking down the difference between the two terms in this post. Let’s start with some examples. Cross-contact:This occurs when a food allergen in one food (let’s say milk protein in cheese) touches another food (let’s say a hamburger), and their proteins mix, transferring the allergen from one food to another. These amounts are often so small that they can’t be seen! In this example, let’s assume I have a severe milk allergy. If the cheese touches the burger, cross-contact has occurred. Even if the cheese is removed from the burger, trace amounts of the milk allergen likely remain on the burger making it unsafe to eat and posing the risk of an allergic reaction. It’s important to note that most food proteins (with few exceptions, like heat labile proteins) CANNOT be cooked out of foods, no matter how high the temperature. When our daughter underwent oral immunotherapy for her peanut allergy, we were given the option to bake the peanut flour into muffins for her to consume. We were told that the high oven temperature would not affect the protein structure of the peanut flour. Cross-contamination:Cross-contamination occurs when a bacteria or virus is unintentionally transferred from one food product to another, making the food unsafe. The key mark of distinction is that cross-contamination generally refers to food contamination, not food allergens. A couple of examples: you cut raw chicken on a cutting board before you put it on the grill. You then cut peppers on that same cutting board. The raw chicken juice touches the peppers, therefore posing a risk for bacteria. Or say you purchase a cantaloupe that unknowingly has listeria. The knife used to dice up the melon is now a vehicle for cross-contamination. Unlike cross-contact, properly cooking contaminated foods generally CAN eliminate the food-borne offender. Is it all making sense now? In short, when referring to food allergens, use cross-contact, and when referring to food-borne bacteria or viruses, use cross-contamination. Easy peasy. We hope our explanation cleared up any confusion. Now that you’re a cross-contact pro, here’s a guide with tips on how to avoid cross-contact. Want to discuss this topic further? Still confused? Feel free to reach out to me at . I’m always game for a good food allergy chat! :) — Meg and the Allergy Amulet Team Color-coding tools, such as shovels for scooping raw meat, can help reduce the potential for cross-contamination.© industrieblick | adobe stock Prior to developing the rules of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), FDA considered the term “cross-contact” to be synonymous with “cross-contamination.” Then in the 2013 FAQ publication on the proposed Preventive Controls rule, the agency began differentiating the terms. Stating that it was following the shift in scientific literature, FDA defined “cross-contact” to mean the unintentional incorporation of a food allergen into a food, with cross-contamination having the more general meaning of contamination from insanitary objects; from personnel to food, food packaging material, and other food-contact surfaces; and from raw product to processed product. With this distinction, is there a difference in sanitation controls that food-processing facilities should implement for the two? © andresr | istock In the final Preventive Controls rule, FDA continues to distinguish the two but tends to reserve the term cross-contamination for that between raw and cooked products, while otherwise using the more general term, contamination. However, with no guidance yet published on the sanitation controls of the Preventive Controls rule, FDA’s 2013 Q&A document on the rule, as proposed, provides a look at the agency’s thinking at the time. In that document, FDA cites examples of sanitation controls to prevent cross-contact as including procedures for:
To prevent cross-contamination, FDA cites examples as being procedures for:
SANITATION RECOMMENDATIONS. But regardless of the focus, the FSMA rules necessitate stricter sanitation controls to minimize or prevent incidents of direct contamination, cross-contact, and cross-contamination. So facilities need to consider aspects of site design, equipment construction materials, utensils and tools, and personnel hygiene practices among other food safety system requirements, said Remco Products Corp. Education and Technical Support Manager Amit Kheradia. In Table 1, Kheradia provides recommendations for managing incidents of each of the three types of contaminations through color-coding. While understanding the differences between contamination and contact, it also is important to recognize the areas in which sanitation controls can apply to both to help facilities exceed FSMA requirements. Some relevant practices that should be applied in food and beverage processing facilities include:
Colors also can act as visual cues to separate workspaces or identify employee shift schedules, Kheradia said, giving the example of blue aprons being used by the first shift and orange aprons for the second shift; white tools could be used in the processing area and green tools at storage area; and so on. “In this way, companies can account for item usage, and reduce misuse of tools in unapproved areas. Moreover, color-coding help can distinguish specific cleaning and sanitation zones,” he said. Black is a common color to identify cleaning tools used on floors and around the drains. Other colors can be used for food-contact tools that, say, handle different allergens which require cleaning and sanitizing. “This practice of segregating tools for food-contact and non-food contact surfaces helps prevent the undesired occurrence of using powerful cleaners on the wrong equipment,” he said. Perfex Corporation Marketing Director Mike Dougherty provided five additional tips for color-coded tools: Very few companies have a written tool care, maintenance, and replacement plan for their cleaning brushes, material handling utensils, or other tools, he added, but at the very least tools must be stored appropriately on shadow boards or racks with heads facing down and distant from other handles, in a single row; they should be replaced when worn out; and they need to be regularly cleaned and sanitized, as appropriate. When developing sanitation controls in compliance with FSMA, the potential hazards of both cross-contact of allergens and cross-contamination from unsanitary objects, personnel, or raw goods need to be considered. One best practice is to separately define the hazards of each; determine areas of overlap; and then set up your program to ensure it addresses each type of potential contamination while maintaining efficiencies in areas of overlap. The author is Editor of QA magazine. She can be reached at . What is an example of crossFor example: Storing gluten-free pasta in a jar that has previously had normal pasta in. Baking cookies on a baking tray and then using it to bake dairy-free cookies. Using the same tongs to handle fish as you use to handle vegetables.
What is a crossWhat is cross-contact? Cross-contact happens when one food comes into contact with another food and their proteins mix. As a result, each food then contains small amounts of the other food. These amounts are so small that they usually can't be seen.
What are the two types of cross contamination?There are three main types of cross contamination: food-to-food, equipment-to-food, and people-to-food. In each type, bacteria are transferred from a contaminated source to uncontaminated food.
What does cross contamination mean?Cross-contamination is the physical movement or transfer of harmful bacteria from one person, object or place to another. Preventing cross-contamination is a key factor in preventing foodborne illness.
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