Abstract
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.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 479-503 |
Journal | Annual Review of Food Science and Technology |
Volume | 6 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |
Keywords
- microbiological risk-assessment
- escherichia-coli o157
- microbial counts
- probable number
- salmonella-typhimurium
- listeria-monocytogenes
- hygienic performances
- united-states
- distributions
- water