Process Control Analysis for Red Meat Hygiene

Summary

The Australian red meat industry collects microbiological data and collates them on an industry-wide basis. Statistical process control approaches are used to present the results of an individual establishment and those obtained across the whole industry against time. The methods of analysis and presentation of the summary data have been developed in consultation with industry. As the process hygiene index (PHI) is implemented across the industry, even more microbiological and hygiene data are being generated, and this too needs to be analyzed to ensure that individual establishments and the industry as a whole gains the most value from these data. One item of particular interest to the industry is the occurrence of rare events such as the detection of E. coli O157 in manufacturing beef, which is detected in approximately 0.1% of lots tested. When events occur rarely it becomes very difficult to determine when prevalence in an individual establishment or across the industry becomes unusually (significantly) high (i.e., events are clustered). This project aims to provide advice on alternate methods of analysis for routine microbiological data collected from red meat processing establishments and suggest an approach to the detection of clusters of otherwise rare events