Room and Air Sanitation


Air is not a growth medium for microorganism, but it contains particle material, dust, and drops of liquid which have posibilities being inhabited by microorganism. The kinds and the number of the microorganism are determined by environment pollution sources, e.g. human respiration duct (cough and sneeze) and dust particles in the air. The condition of the microorganism in air is dependent on the atmosphere condition (humidity, sunlight, and temperature), size of the microorganism carrier particle, and the identity of the microorganism, especially in collision potency which is hardy in the physical condition in atmosphere. Microorganisms in the air are microorganisms which is hardy of dry condition, e.g. mold spores, bacteria spores adhering on dust or water drops, and also yeast.

Rate of air pollution by microorganism in room is affected by factors like ventilation rapidity, the people density, and also the kind and level activity of the people in that room. Microorganism vilification could occure because of sneeze, cough, even when talking through water drops medium. Drops of water which has diameter arround low micrometer will live in the air for several time, but the big water drops will soon fall down onto the floor or adhering on other things surfaces.

Earth surface (land and sea) is a microorganism source in the air. The facilities of industry processing, agriculture, and town, local or regional, also having potential producing aerosol containing microorganism. A few examples are:

1. irrigation of farming plants or forest area with waste.
2. implementation of big scale cleaning.
3. “trickling-bed” winnow in cleaning water factories.
4. animal slaughtering house and fat melting.

Most of the microorganisms in the air are mold spores, particularly from Aspergillus genus. Beside that there are also spore former bacteria and non spore former bacteria, bacillus positive gram, coccus positive gram, and bacillus negative gram.

Sanitation Test on Surface

Tools sufaces which are directly having a contact with food, for example processing preparation table, tank of raw material/supporting material or package material, have a possibility being contamination sources. Beside that food processing environment, e.g. floor, wall or worker clothes is also having a possibility being contamination sources in food. Because of that it needs appropriate methods to test the sanitation of the surface, they are swab method and RODAC method.

Swab Method

This method is usually using sterile spreader stick which is available in market. Usually the spreader stick is made from wood stick with cotton twist on the point. Beside that it needs sterile thinning agent solution in tube (e.g. 10 ml) having a role as rinsing agent. Spreader stick which has been used to smear, is placed into the tube containg thinning agent solution. If needed, the point of the stick is cut, so that the tube can be sealed.

RODAC Method

RODAC or Replicate Organism Direct Agar Contact is commonly used to know the condition of the flat surfaces sanitation by sticking the agar on the surface for several seconds. It needs big syringe (50 ml volume) containing PCA (Potato Dextrose Agar) (or other medium dependant on the kind of the test) and being sterilized using otoklaf (121oC for 15 minutes). Thus the solid medium is available in syringe (or known as ‘sausage agar’).

Every food processing process involves the usage of tools and containers. If the cleaning of these stuffs is not conducted well, so it is not impossible if the tools and the containers will become contamination sources for processed food.

To test the containers and processing tools sanitation, rinse method and swab method can be used. Rinse method can be used for closed tools and containers, but swab method is for big tools and containers with no flat surfaces.

Source:
Kusumaningrum H. D, dkk. 2007. Penuntun Praktikum Mikrobiologi Pangan. Bogor: Institut Pertanian Bogor

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