Aljosa Trmcic

When I write articles and scientific papers, I find it difficult to do a proper critical review of my own work because I am so intimate with the sentences and ideas behind them that during review I often switch to just reciting the text by heart instead of truly reading it. What I need is a fresh pair of eyes to read the text for the first time and put every single detail to proper scrutiny. The same way I am intimate with my sentences and ideas, dairy industry workers are intimate with their environment, equipment and work. This intimacy means that any deviation from the usual state of their environment, equipment and work will either be immediately noticed, or it will never be noticed because it soon becomes part of the usual state. So, the same way I need fresh pair of eyes to review my text, the dairy industry workers need a fresh pair of eyes to review their environment, equipment and work.

First example is a problem with post-pasteurization contamination (PPC) that persisted in one of the fluid milk processing plants for months. Since the PPC problem did not seem sporadic and a relatively similar spoilage was observed across all fluid milk processed each day the multiple different fillers used by the processor were excluded as the main cause of the problem. Instead, the p-tanks, used to store pasteurized product before filling, were again and again identified as the most likely source, but what part of the p-tanks exactly was the source the workers were not able to determine. They determined each investigation that integrity of the p-tanks was not compromised in any way and the cleaning and sanitation procedures were appropriate. It took that fresh pair of eyes to determine that membrane pressure sensor, used to monitor product volume in the p-tank, was leaking and retained a lot of solid residues in the sensor port. While the sensor is designed to seal the port opening and have only the membrane of the sensor exposed to the product, it will only seal properly if the integrity of the rubber gasket surrounding the membrane is not compromised. Fresh pair of eyes identified that the sensor includes a gasket and needs to be checked and maintained regularly. Since then, the processor put the tank pressure/level sensors on their regular PM schedule and the rest is PPC history.

Second example is a food safety one; troubleshooting persistence of Listeria in a dairy processing environment. A processor with a five-star environmental monitoring program is dealing with persistent strain of Listeria in one the drains; 15 drains present in the processing environment only one continuously comes back positive for an entire year. It took again a fresh pair of eyes, or better yet fingers, to detect a small crack in the drain that leads to a large opening behind the drain wall. A niche that never gets scrubbed and provides Listeria with plenty of food to grow and persist in the environment. Since then, the processor replaced the drain to eliminate the crack as well as the open space behind it and rest is persistent pathogen contamination history.

So, when you look upon your perfect environment, equipment and work keep in mind the value of putting it all under additional scrutiny by taking another look with a fresh pair of eyes; and let us know if you want Cornell’s Dairy Foods Extension to be those eyes for you.