Technology from 1917?

Following the string of recalls in foods ranging from pizza to ground beef, it is clear that something in the food safety process is not working. Sick consumers should not be the first indicator of bacteria located within a plant. The first step in any pathogen recovery method is to collect a surface sample, which is traditionally done with a swab or sponge. This sampling method may actually be the whole problem.

An article published in 2004 states, "The swab-rinse method was originally developed by Mannheimer and Ybanez in 1917 to assess the bacterial contamination of eating utensils. In 1944, the American Public Health Association included it in its recommended methods for food utensil sanitation monitoring."

In other words we have a big problem: prevalent sampling technology is 90 years old. The article goes on to state, "Historically, the number of organisms recovered from swabs used for environmental sampling has shown a poor correlation with the number of microbial contamination on surfaces."

We don't drive cars from 1917...maybe we shouldn't use equally dated sampling methods either.