Statistical aspects of food safety sampling.
In food safety management, sampling is an important tool for verifying control. Sampling by nature is a stochastic process. However, uncertainty regarding results is made even greater by the uneven distribution of microorganisms in a batch of food. This article reviews statistical aspects of sampling and describes the impact of distributions on the sampling results. Five different batch contamination scenarios are illustrated: a homogeneous batch, a heterogeneous batch with high- or low-level contamination, and a batch with localized high- or low-level contamination. These batch contamination scenarios showed that sampling results have to be interpreted carefully, especially when heterogeneous and localized contamination in food products is expected.
Laboratory of Food Microbiology, Wageningen University, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands; email: marcel.zwietering@wur.nl.
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Jongenburger
H M W
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den Besten
M H
MH
Zwietering
D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005506:Food Contamination; D005516:Food Microbiology; D059022:Food Safety; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical
OC curve; heterogeneity; microbiological criteria; pathogens; sampling plan; spatial distribution